Thai security forces have launched a manhunt for a group of six suspects caught on closed-circuit camera brutally killing two soldiers escorting a Buddhist monk during his morning rounds in Yala province yesterday.Camera footage begins with a green pick-up truck parked 20 meters from the shooting scene. Two
The dead soldiers were members of the 11th Yala Special Task Force, responsible for providing protection to monks in the province.
The incident happened about 7:30 AM when the two soldiers were accompanying a monk along a road by the Pattani River. The attackers came along in a pickup truck and sprayed them with bullets, Pol Lt Anumat said. The monk narrowly escaped the bullets fired from M16 and AK assault rifles, and escaped with only minor injuries.
In Pattani, a man believed to be a key figure of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) separatist movement was killed and a Border Patrol Police officer was injured in a shootout that erupted at a house in Yaring district on Friday. The dead man is Ruyi Bueraheng, 27, a key RKK figure operating in nearby Mayo district.
Pol Maj Gen Suchart said his team had learned that Ruyi, who has been wanted by police since 2006, was hiding in the house. When launched the raid, there was a gun battle that lasted for 10 minutes before Ruyi was found dead. Pol Sgt Maj Damrong Phalee, one of the police team, was shot in the stomach and rushed to hospital.
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Thai police found the bodies of two unidentified men who had apparently been slashed to death. One was found with a T-shirt that indicated he might have been a soldier from a local army camp. The other had a uniform from a religious school.