Suspected Muslim separatist rebels have killed four Buddhists and wounded eight soldiers in three separate attacks in Thailand's rebellious south, police said on Wednesday. One of the victims was beheaded.
Two of the victims, both itinerant salesmen, were shot dead on Tuesday in a village in Narathiwat, one of the southernmost provinces caught up in a three-year separatist insurgency in which more than 2,300 people have died. The body and head of a third salesman were found in separate bags on Wednesday, police said, bringing the number of decapitations in the unrest to 25.
"There were merchants from other towns and they didn't know they were visiting a red village," a policeman in Narathiwat told Reuters. Thai security forces use "red" as a label for villages they say are filled with insurgents.
In a separate incident, a small roadside bomb detonated in front of a Muslim school in Pattani province, killing a Buddhist soldier and wounding another, police said.
Two hours later, militants exploded another bomb near an army patrol, which then came under small arms fire. Seven soldiers were wounded, police said.
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