Newest Violence In The Deep South

[sbk]

Woman worker shot by gunmen in Narathiwat

NARATHIWAT, Sept 29 (TNA) - A female garbage collector was wounded Saturday morning when two gunmen on a motorcycle fired at her, police said.

Police said the 42-year-old victim was collecting garbage on a street in Ruso district when the two gunmen riding the motorcycle fired twice, hitting her on the left hand. The gunmen escaped by motorcycle.

The victim was later sent to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Eight garbage collectors were shot and wounded since 2004, three of whom died.

Meanwhile, the conditions of five police officers who were wounded early in a Friday morning bomb blast and are now being treated at two hospitals have now improved. They were wounded while escorting educators to school in Narathiwat.

Teacher Nisa Petchyod who is nine-months pregnant and was also wounded in the same incident is now out of danger.

In Pattani, the bodies of two soldiers who were killed by insurgents Friday morning in Sai Buri district after providing military training to students were sent to their home provinces for religious rites, police said. The royally-sponsored funeral rites will be held next Thursday. (TNA)-E111

MCOT TNA news

Three policemen killed, five officials wounded in attacks in south Thailand

The Associated Press

Published: September 28, 2007

BANGKOK, Thailand: Suspected insurgents ambushed a police truck in southern Thailand on Friday, killing three officers, while five people were wounded in a separate attack in the troubled region, officials said.

The attack on the police happened in Sai Buri district of Pattani province, 750 kilometers (470 miles) south of the Thai capital, Bangkok, said Lt. Zakarima Mantaket.

"They opened fire on the police truck, and when the truck crashed they shot and killed the three policemen and took their guns," Zakarima said.

Separately in Pattani province, four policemen assigned to protect teachers were wounded along with one female teacher when a roadside bomb exploded as their vehicle drove past, said Police Lt. Dusadee.

More than 2,400 people have been killed in Thailand's Muslim-majority southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, and the southern part of nearby Songkhla, since a long-simmering Islamic separatist insurgency flared up in January 2004.

International Herald Tribune