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Source: Reuters -
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A Muslim village chief was shot dead as he entered a mosque and two soldiers were killed in an ambush by suspected insurgents in Thailand's deep south on Friday, police said.
The attacks took place in Narathiwat and Pattani, two of three mainly Muslim provinces near the Malaysian border where close to 3,500 people have died in violence since 2004.
The village leader was shot four times by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle as he entered the mosque for morning prayers in Pattani, police said.
That was followed a few hours later by an ambush on an army patrol in Narathiwat, in which two soldiers were killed and another was wounded.
Militants detonated a roadside bomb, which killed the two troops, and shot another in the five-minute gunfight that followed. The rebels escaped.
A Buddhist man was gunned down outside his motorcycle repair shop in Pattani on Thursday, police said. A bomb left next to his body was detonated as investigators arrived, but no one was hurt.
A Buddhist defence volunteer and a female Burmese migrant worker were also killed by gunmen on motorcycles earlier this week. Police blamed Muslim insurgents for the attacks.
Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces were part of a Malay Muslim sultanate until annexed by Buddhist Thailand a century ago, and separatist tensions have simmered ever since.
Local Muslims largely oppose the presence of tens of thousands of police, soldiers and state-armed Buddhist guards in the rubber-rich region and many suspect the authorities of carrying out extrajudicial killings.
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