15 die in Thailand violence

[Fidel]

15 die in Thailand violence

 

YALA, Thailand: Ten soldiers were killed yesterday in a bomb attack and ambush by militants in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, and five other people were shot dead inside a mosque. An army pick-up truck carrying 10 soldiers was first hit by a roadside bomb and then ambushed by Islamic rebels in Yala province, said Colonel Acra Tiproach, an army spokesman.

 

Yala is one of three insurgency-torn southern Thai provinces, along with Narathiwat and Pattani, bordering Malaysia.

 

More than five young men were shot dead by gunmen in a separate incident in the south, the army spokesman said.

 

They were killed while they were praying at a mosque in the Saba Yoi district of Songkhla province, which is near Yala.

 

"The victims were all men in their 20s. They were killed inside the mosque," Acra said.

 

Yesterday's violence came as thousands of protesters in the capital, Bangkok, demonstrated against Thailand's junta after a court barred ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai party from contesting elections.

 

Source

[Flashermac]

Interestingly enough, the fourth Islamic border province - Satun - has been uneffected by the violence. The people there want to be Thais and even intermarry with Buddhists. The Patani liberationist thugs are radicals demanding a Sharia ruled state, with the Thai minority being completely expelled.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satun_Province

 

[waerth]

The area comprising Satun was never a part of the Patani Kingdom, the other provinces were.

 

Waertn

[Flashermac]

Yet PULO claims both Satun and Songkla for their proposed Islamic republic.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patani_United_Liberation_Organization