April 24, 2008
PATTANI, Thailand - Suspected separatist rebels on Thursday ambushed and killed five labourers outside a school in southern Thailand, police said, while a bomb near a railway track wounded two soldiers.
A pick-up truck carrying six labourers had stopped at the gates of an Islamic school in Pattani province when the rebels emerged from nearby houses and spraye the vehicle with bullets, instantly killing four men and one woman.
Police on the scene told AFP that the workers were on their way to build a new school building when the attack happened. A man was also wounded.
Earlier Thursday in neighbouring Narathiwat province, militants placed a suspect package on a railway track, police in the region said.
Four soldiers went to inspect the package and discovered that it was a fake bomb, but moments later rebels detonated explosives hidden about five metres (16 feet) away from the decoy.
Two of the soldiers were hospitalised with blast injuries.
Rebels waging a bloody battle for a separate state in Muslim-majority southern Thailand frequently hit targets associated with the Thai state, including train lines, schools, army posts and police patrols.
More than 3,000 people have been killed since unrest broke out in the far south in January 2004.
