Four Shot Dead In New Thai South Violence

[churchill]

YALA, Thailand : Suspected separatist insurgents in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south shot dead four civilians while a remote-controlled bomb wounded five other people, police said Tuesday.

Militants gunned down a Buddhist man and his wife in an ambush early Tuesday while they were travelling by motorbike to tap rubber in restive Pattani province, police said.

As police investigated the shooting, rebels detonated a bomb hidden beneath the bodies of the couple, wounding three policemen and two villagers, they added.

Also in Pattani a gunman posing as a wedding guest shot dead a Muslim man at a marriage ceremony on Monday evening, police said.

Earlier Monday, a painter was killed in a drive-by shooting as he rode a motorbike to a local teashop in the same province.

A bomb hidden in a motorcycle was detonated outside a karaoke shop, again in Pattani, on Monday night but there were no injuries.

The southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and parts of Songkhla made up an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until it was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in 1902, sparking decades of tension.

More than 3,700 people have died since an insurgency erupted five years ago.

Islamic rebels have targeted both Buddhists and Muslims, with victims ranging from security forces to civilians such as teachers and workers on rubber plantations.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp.../445202/1/.html

[churchill]

Every day we have reports of deaths , but other news always seems to take priority - it seems that it is a forgotten war -

[zzaa09]

Every day we have reports of deaths , but other news always seems to take priority - it seems that it is a forgotten war -

Just because it is not intensely observed through mainstream news sources, doesn't mean the southern conflict is forgotten. Consider, first what the mainstream/commerical.establishment press is, and go from there.

[manuchaomk]

Source: Aljazeera.net

UPDATED ON:

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 , 07:04 GMT

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Deaths in south Thailand ambush

Two people have been killed and three security officials injured in an ambush in southern Thailand in the latest in a series of attacks the police have blamed on separatist fighters.

According to police a Buddhist rubber tapper and his wife were shot on their way to work in the province's Khok Pho district early on Tuesday by attackers armed with assault rifles.

The incident took place in Pattani, one of the three Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand's south.

Later three security officers were also wounded when a bomb detonated at the scene of the shooting.

The ambush came a day after a Muslim man attending his son's wedding was shot and killed by attackers riding motorcycles.

Rising violence

The attacks come amid a spike in violence during a five-year insurgency in the area that has left at least 3,700 people dead.

Since last month, at least 40 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in violence in the region.

The deadliest recent incident was the killing of 10 Muslims at a mosque in Narathiwat in early June.

Most of the violence in Thailand's south has been blamed by authorities on Muslim armed separatist groups.

However, no group has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.

The fighters in Thailand's southern provinces have not specifically stated their motives, but they are thought to be fighting to establish an independent state in the three Muslim-majority provinces.

The latest rebellion in the former ethnic Malay sultanate began in January 2004 when fighters raided an army base, killing four soldiers