ASIA: Five killed in bomb, shootings in Thai south: police
05 Dec 2008 4:29 PM
NARATHIWAT, Thailand, Dec 5 AFP - Shootings and a bomb attack carried out by suspected separatist insurgents have killed five people including a policeman in Thailand's far south, police say.
Three villagers were killed instantly when a bomb exploded at a petrol station on Friday morning in Narathiwat, one of three southern provinces beset by a bloody separatist insurgency which erupted in January 2004.
Five people were also wounded in the attack, provincial police said.
In nearby Pattani province on Thursday evening, a 60-year-old man and a 32-year-old policeman were killed in separate drive-by shootings.
More than 3,500 people have been killed since separatist unrest erupted almost five years ago in the far southern region. Tensions have simmered since Thailand annexed the mainly Malay sultanate in 1902.
Last month, two bombs in Yala province wounded 74 people in one of the biggest attacks on civilians since 2004.
