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YALA, Thailand - Thai security officials raided a suspected Muslim militant hideout in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand on Monday, triggering gunbattles that left six suspected rebels dead, police said.
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About 100 soldiers and police took part in the raid at a remote village in Yala's Bannang Sata district, acting on intelligence report that militants were in hiding in the area, said police Col. Sompien Eksomya.
One suspected insurgent was killed in a subsequent exchange of fire, Sompien said.
"The rest of them ran away so we followed them into the jungle," he said, adding that five militants were killed and four policemen were shot and wounded in a second gunbattle.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in the predominantly Muslim southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and some parts of Songkhla since early 2004, when a separatist movement flared up after a lull of more than two decades.
Muslims in the south say the central government of mainly Buddhist Thailand discriminates against them, especially in jobs and education.
The military considers Bannang Sata district an insurgent stronghold and has enforced a curfew in the area since March 2007.
The raid came two days after suspected Muslim insurgents shot dead four people aboard a train as it approached a station in Yala province.
Army spokesman Col. Akara Thiprote said the two events were unrelated and that the assailants in the Saturday night train attack were still at large.
The latest attacks came after a lull in violence in recent months.
Και η βία φέρνει βία.....εγώ δε φοβάμαι πάντως, για την Mrs ανησυχώ....
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About 100 soldiers and police took part in the raid at a remote village in Yala's Bannang Sata district, acting on intelligence report that militants were in hiding in the area, said police Col. Sompien Eksomya.
One suspected insurgent was killed in a subsequent exchange of fire, Sompien said.
"The rest of them ran away so we followed them into the jungle," he said, adding that five militants were killed and four policemen were shot and wounded in a second gunbattle.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in the predominantly Muslim southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and some parts of Songkhla since early 2004, when a separatist movement flared up after a lull of more than two decades.
Muslims in the south say the central government of mainly Buddhist Thailand discriminates against them, especially in jobs and education.
The military considers Bannang Sata district an insurgent stronghold and has enforced a curfew in the area since March 2007.
The raid came two days after suspected Muslim insurgents shot dead four people aboard a train as it approached a station in Yala province.
Army spokesman Col. Akara Thiprote said the two events were unrelated and that the assailants in the Saturday night train attack were still at large.
The latest attacks came after a lull in violence in recent months.
Και η βία φέρνει βία.....εγώ δε φοβάμαι πάντως, για την Mrs ανησυχώ....
