Five soldiers die in a bomb and shooting attack at a checkpoint in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south, with six civilians wounded.
BANGKOK: Assailants killed five soldiers in a shooting and bomb attack at a checkpoint in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south, as the government warned Thursday of an uptick in violence in the region.
Six civilians were also wounded in the Wednesday evening attack in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency, local officials said.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Thursday condemned what he called a “brazen act of terrorism” that he said posed “a serious threat to national security”, adding that it was an “obstacle to peace efforts” in the region.
CCTV images broadcast by local media show six suspects dressed in black pulling up in a pickup truck, followed by a volley of gunfire. Two other suspects on a motorbike were also filmed shooting.
Five members of Task Force Ranger Regiment 45 “were killed when assailants opened fire and threw pipe bombs at the Bukeh Sami checkpoint”, the army said in a statement late Wednesday.
The public relations department of Narathiwat province said six civilians were hurt, adding that no group had claimed responsibility and no arrests have been made.
Narathiwat Governor Boonchuay Homyamyen visited the injured in hospital on Thursday, including a 10-year-old boy who suffered a leg wound, the province said.
In another attack in Narathiwat province on Tuesday night, the army said an explosive device planted in a car was detonated in front of a local police station, causing minor injuries to police officers and property damage.
– Violent incidents –
A low-level conflict has simmered in the southernmost provinces of Buddhist-majority Thailand since 2004, killing more than 7,000 people, as rebels in the Muslim-majority region battle for greater autonomy.
Government spokeswoman Ratchada Thanadirek said the past two to three months had seen a series of violent incidents carried out by a “terrorist network seeking to instill fear among the public and target state officials”.
Thailand’s defence minister will visit the region to assess the situation, she said in a statement.
In a bid to end the long-running insurgency, Thailand first held peace talks with the rebel group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) in 2013 under Malaysian mediation, with the latest round held in December.
In 2019, a group of Malay Muslim separatists threw grenades and opened fire on a checkpoint in the southernmost province of Yala, killing 15 people, including local security forces, and wounding five others, according to monitor group ACLED.
Thai authorities claimed the BRN was responsible, ACLED said.
Chanatip Tatiyakaroonwong, a human rights researcher at Amnesty International, told AFP that while attacks in Thailand’s deep south mostly target security personnel, the incident on Wednesday was “different in terms of death tolls and young civilians that were injured from crossfire”.
The army paid tribute to those killed on Wednesday, saying: “Their service and sacrifice will be remembered and honoured with the highest respect.”
Opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut condemned the attack and urged the Thai government to address the situation urgently.
