August 27, 2009
BANGKOK (AFP) - Suspected Islamic militants killed three Muslim men and wounded four other people in gun and bomb attacks across the restive Thai south, police said Thursday.
A 45-year-old Muslim man was shot dead late Wednesday as he returned home from a local mosque by motorcycle in Pattani province. His eight-year-old son, riding pillion, was injured and taken to hospital.
Also Wednesday, police said they found the body of a 33-year-old Muslim villager, who had been shot and killed in Narathiwat province, while two soldiers in Pattani were wounded in a roadside bomb.
Early Thursday, a 70-year-old Muslim man was shot dead as he left his house to attend morning prayers in Yala province.
In the same province a Muslim woman, 32, lost her leg after she stepped on a landmine planted in a rubber plantation, police said.
Thailand's four southernmost provinces made up an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until the region was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in 1902, sparking decades of tension.
More than 3,700 people have been killed and thousands more injured since the insurgency erupted in 2004, led by shadowy insurgents who have never publicly stated their goals.
The south has seen a recent upsurge in attacks, many of which involve shootings of Buddhists and Muslims alike. There have also been gruesome killings such as crucifixions and beheadings.
On Tuesday a powerful car bomb ripped through a restaurant packed with government officials in Narathiwat, wounding at least 42 people, the army said.
