Two soldiers were killed and six security officers wounded as insurgents mounted dozens of coordinated bombing, shooting and arson attacks in Thailand’s deep south, police said on Thursday.
Government offices, mobile phone masts and convenience stores were among the targets of 32 attacks on Wednesday evening across eight districts of Pattani province in the restive region near the Malaysian border.
Police said the casualties were all from a single ambush, with a car bomb aimed at security personnel responding to a shooting.
More than 5,500 people have been killed in several provinces in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south in nine bloody years of unrest, with shadowy insurgent groups blamed for near-daily bombings and shootings.
Security personnel and those connected with the government are regularly targeted, as well as Muslims perceived to be collabourating with the authorities.
Thailand held its first official peace talks with southern insurgents at the end of March, with a one-day meeting with representatives of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.
