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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai soldiers kill Muslim teens in southern Thailand |
| 2007-04-14 |
| Hundreds of Muslims blocked a main road in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand on Saturday to protest the killing of three youths in a confrontation with soldiers, officials said. Troops had shot dead three Muslim boys ages 13 to 15, and wounded two others Friday night in clash in Pattani province, said police Col. Somjit Nasomyon. The circumstances of the shooting were unclear, with officials differing on whether the soldiers had been fired upon. A unit of 12 soldiers had been dispatched to a village in Muang district on Friday to investigate arson attacks on four mobile phone transmission towers, Somjit said. When the soldiers reached the scene, gunshots were fired from where a group of youths was standing, and the soldiers fired back in self-defense, said army Col. Wanchai Paungkhumsa, the local military commander. "They could not just sit idly in that situation," Wanchai said. Somjit gave a slightly different account of the incident, indicating that the soldiers opened fire because the youths rushed toward them as they inspected a burned telephone relay tower. "The soldiers admitted that they shot at them when the group of young men ran at them," he said. "It was dark at night, and the soldiers had to fire to defend themselves since they did not know who was approaching them." A similar event a week earlier — when government-backed village militia opened fire on a pickup truck in nearby Yala province, killing four Muslim youths — also ignited protests. On Saturday morning about 300 protesters, mostly young men, gathered on a main road near a major mosque in Muang and blocked the main road linking Pattani to neighboring Narathiwat province, forcing motorists to use alternate routes, Somjit said. The protesters dispersed by late afternoon after Pattani's governor agreed to investigate the incident and promised them justice. Buddhist civilians have also been holding protests, calling for the government to increase security. They are still rallying in Yala around the body of a young Buddhist women who was killed and burned by suspected Muslim insurgents. In separate violence on Saturday, suspected Islamic insurgents shot at a passenger train in Narathiwat province, injuring an engineer and a female passenger, said police Capt. Samahae Sanya. The injured were taken to a hospital and the train continued on its journey, he said. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #4 fewer in the breeding stock. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-04-14 22:08 |
| #3 More, and faster please. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2007-04-14 18:27 |
| #2 Give 'em a whiff of grapeshot. |
| Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 2007-04-14 13:15 |
| #1 blocking roads, huh? Muslim Corrie Brigade. Fire up the D-9s and tracked armor...Vroom Vroom |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-04-14 08:38 |