[Bangkok Post] Fifteen people manning a security checkpoint were killed when it was attacked by gunmen on Tuesday night in Yala province. The victims' weapons were stolen. Authorities said there were at least ten attackers. The militants approached on foot through a rubber plantation to attack the defense volunteer booth in tambon Lam Phaya of Muang district about 11:20pm.
Eleven local residents and officials, mainly defense volunteers on duty, were gunned down during the attack. Four wounded colleagues later succumbed to their injuries. Three other wounded people were being treated at the hospital. Two defense volunteers survived the onslaught unscathed.
The dead included present and former assistant village and sub-district heads, a former sub-district head, a health official, and a police captain supervising southern border investigations. Officials said the attackers stole an assault rifle, two shotguns and five pistols from the checkpoint victims.
The rebels scattered road spikes, set fire to tires, felled a tree and bombed a power pole to obstruct pursuit. It also hindered emergency services rushing to the scene of the attack. Three rescue vehicles were disabled.
About the same time, another checkpoint was attacked. No casualties were reported there.
| The Jerusalem Post adds: |
Fifteen people, including a police officer and many village defence volunteers, were killed on late on Tuesday when suspected separatists stormed a security checkpoint in Yala.
It was the worst single attack in years in a restive region where a long-running Muslim insurgency has killed thousands of people in a fight against central government rule in overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, as is common with such attacks in the region.
"We have evidence indicating that it was the BRN," said Ronnasilp Pusara, a police commander in the south, referring to the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, the main insurgent group operating in the south.
"We have captured one suspect, who is now being interrogated. He also belongs to the BRN," he said.
Reuters could not immediately reach a representative of the BRN for comment.
The separatist insurgency in Thailand's largely ethnic Malay-Muslim provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat has killed nearly 7,000 people since 2004, says Deep South Watch, a group that monitors the violence.
In August, the BRN told Reuters it had held a secret preliminary meeting with the government, but any step towards a peace process appeared to wither after the deputy prime minister rejected a key demand for the release of prisoners.