Thailand: Soldiers killed and beheaded in troubled south
Bangkok, 20 Feb. (AKI) – Two soldiers were killed and later beheaded on Friday in an ambush believed to have been carried out by Muslim separatists in southern Thailand. Police said the soldiers were shot dead on their motorcycles as they guarded teachers at a school in Yala, one of the three southern predominantly Muslim provinces at the centre of a long-running insurgency.
"At least 10 gunmen using army weapons ambushed the group, killing two soldiers," a police official said. "Then they beheaded them and took away their guns and bullet-proof jackets."
No-one claimed responsibility for the killings, the latest in a violent campaign which has killed more than 3,500 people since January 2004.
Earlier this month, two paramilitary police were shot dead and decapitated in the region and last week three policemen were killed in a bomb attack.
Yala is the southernmost province of Thailand and was part of a Muslim sultanate until annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.
Tensions have simmered in the region since Thailand annexed the mainly Malay sultanate in 1902.
The sultanate includes Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, which have a Muslim majority in the Buddhist country.
Demands by Thai Muslims include the introduction of Islamic law and making ethnic Pattani Malay (Yawi) a working language in the region, as well as the improvement of the local economy and education system.