Four Shot Dead In Thai South - Thailand Forum

Four Shot Dead In Thai South - Thailand Forum

Four shot dead in Thai south

YALA, January 28, 2011 (AFP) - A security volunteer collecting her two-year-old daughter from day care was among four people shot dead in separate attacks in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south, police said Friday.

Unknown gunmen attacked the 37-year-old Buddhist woman in front of her child in Pattani province on Thursday afternoon.

Two Muslim men, aged 24 and 41, were killed in separate drive-by shootings in the same province on Thursday.

Another gun attack in neighbouring Yala province on the same day left a 35-year-old Muslim security volunteer dead at his home.

Shadowy Islamic insurgents have appeared to intensify fighting recently, with an unusually brazen attack by armed rebels on a Thai military base in Narathiwat province last week killing at least four soldiers.

On Friday, a Buddhist monk and three troops escorting him to collect morning alms were injured when a homemade bomb hidden at the foot of a bridge in Pattani was detonated by radio.

Militants have waged a violent campaign in Thailand's southernmost region bordering Malaysia since early 2004, leaving more than 4,400 people dead, including both Muslims and Buddhists.

Thailand extended emergency rule last week in most of the Muslim-majority region for another three months, despite rights groups' concerns about the powers given to the military.