[Bangkok Post] One police officer was killed and five others injured in a drive-by shooting attack Thursday morning at Rangae district police station while officers were assembled together outdoors. Four to five attackers traveling in a pickup drove slowly past the station, then opened fire on about 30 police who were standing in rows, in the middle of their daily briefing in the yard inside the gates. Witnesses said the gunmen were dressed like construction workers. They fired assault rifles at the policemen. A policeman on duty at the gate fired back at the truck prompting the attackers to flee. They scattered spikes on the road behind them as they drove off.
From surveillance camera footage, police determined the truck was stolen in Sukhirin district prior to the attack. According to a source, an unnamed couple in a pickup were stopped by a group of people pretending to be security officials at a fake security checkpoint set up in an area between Chanae district and Sukhirin district. The two were taken by the fake security officials and locked inside a deserted house nearby, the source said. The couple later lodged a complaint with police about the theft of the pickup, police said, adding the truck was later to be the same one caught on security cameras being used by the police station attackers.
Police later raided two locations in Muang district, resulting in two suspects being taken into in custody. Security officials are continuing to check surveillance cameras and search for the other suspects.
A security source said the station attack was apparently an act of revenge against the authorities over the extra-judicial killings of Isma-ae Hama and Arseng Useng in Rueso district on Wednesday afternoon. The two were believed to be among the people behind the killing of Somchai Thongjan, an assistant village chief of Ban Si Phinyo in Rueso district and three members of his family, the source said. Somchai's wife, older sister and eight-year-old son were also killed. He confirmed the motive of Thursday's attack was retaliation for the killing of the two suspects.
The two were killed during a gun battle with a security team that broke out after the driver of a pickup truck they were traveling in refused to stop at a security checkpoint. The suspects in the truck who opened fire at them were believed to be Runda Kumpulan Kecil militants, the source said.