Suspected militant attack in Thailand’s south leave 15 dead, says army

Late on Tuesday militants struck two checkpoints in Yala province manned by civil defence volunteers

Thailand’s three southernmost provinces have been in the grip of a conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people, as Malay-Muslim militants fight for more autonomy from the Thai state

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Members of a bomb squad inspect the site of an attack by suspected Muslim militants in Thailand’s Yala province on November 6. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:41pm, 6 Nov 2019Updated: 7:32pm, 6 Nov 2019

At least 15 people in Thailand were killed in attacks by suspected Muslim militants in the country’s violence-wracked south, an army spokesman said on Wednesday, the latest incident in the 15-year bloody insurgency.

It was the worst single attack in years in a restive region where a long-running Muslim insurgency has killed thousands of people in a fight against central government rule in overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand.

Thailand’s three southernmost provinces have been in the grip of a conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people, as Malay-Muslim militants fight for more autonomy from the Thai state.

The region is under martial law, heavily policed by the military and sometimes staffed with trained civilian volunteers, with residents and rights groups accusing them of heavy handed tactics.

The bodies of people killed in the attacks by suspected Muslim militants in Yala province. Photo: AFP

Late on Tuesday, militants struck two checkpoints in Yala province manned by civil defence volunteers, opening fire on them as a group of villagers stopped to talk, southern army spokesman Pramote Prom-in said.