Three killed in attacks in Thai Muslim south
BANGKOK, July 22 (Reuters) - Separatist militants in Thailand's Muslim deep south have killed three Thais, including two security officers, in a spate of violence days after an unknown rebel group announced a "ceasefire".
One soldier was killed and five wounded on Tuesday when their patrol was ambushed in the southern province of Narathiwat, one of three provinces where a four-year-old insurgency has killed more than 3,000 people.
Gunmen fired on the 12-man patrol after setting off a large roadside bomb, police said.
On Monday, six policemen and a civilian in the nearby province of Yala were wounded in a bomb attack. One of the officers died later in hospital.
That same day in Narathiwat, a village chief was shot dead by suspected militants as he road home on a motorcycle.
The near daily gun and bomb attacks have not stopped since the Thailand United Southern Underground, which claimed to represent 11 insurgent groups, announced a "ceasefire" last week. Security experts swiftly dismissed the announcement they said was made by a group which had no influence in the region. The Thai army identified the group's leader as Malipeng Khan, a separatist active in the 1980s who had failed to unify insurgent factions in the region annexed by predominately Buddhist Thailand a century ago.
Since the latest violence erupted in 2004, the shadowy rebels have never revealed themselves publicly or claimed responsibility for the unrest in the rubber-producing region bordering Malaysia. (Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Vithoon Amorn; Editing by Darren Schuettler and David Fox)
One soldier was killed and five wounded on Tuesday when their patrol was ambushed in the southern province of Narathiwat, one of three provinces where a four-year-old insurgency has killed more than 3,000 people.
Gunmen fired on the 12-man patrol after setting off a large roadside bomb, police said.
On Monday, six policemen and a civilian in the nearby province of Yala were wounded in a bomb attack. One of the officers died later in hospital.
That same day in Narathiwat, a village chief was shot dead by suspected militants as he road home on a motorcycle.
The near daily gun and bomb attacks have not stopped since the Thailand United Southern Underground, which claimed to represent 11 insurgent groups, announced a "ceasefire" last week. Security experts swiftly dismissed the announcement they said was made by a group which had no influence in the region. The Thai army identified the group's leader as Malipeng Khan, a separatist active in the 1980s who had failed to unify insurgent factions in the region annexed by predominately Buddhist Thailand a century ago.
Since the latest violence erupted in 2004, the shadowy rebels have never revealed themselves publicly or claimed responsibility for the unrest in the rubber-producing region bordering Malaysia. (Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Vithoon Amorn; Editing by Darren Schuettler and David Fox)
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