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Five slain in Narathiwat clash |
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Headlines—Thailand
One soldier, two villagers and two militants were shot dead in a battle at a military outpost in Narathiwat's Rueso district on Tuesday night, duty officer at Rueso police station Lt Sithanon Samlee said on Wednesday.
Another three soldiers and two civilians were wounded in the attack, according to Pol Lt Sithanon.
About 6.50pm, Rueso police received a reported of a gunfight at an outpost inside a multipurpose building of tambon Rueso municipality in Ban Tha Rua of tambon Rueso, he said.
Police rushed to the scene and only to find out the militants had placed logs and burning tires on the local road to obstruct them from reaching the scene, 1.5 kilometers away.
After ten minutes of clearing off the road, police reached the spot and found more than 100 spent empty cartridges from M16 and AK47 assault rifles scattered in the area.
Nearby villagers told police that the injured people and dead bodies were already taken to Rueso hospital.
Witnesses told police that soldiers were relaxing when about 30 men in black arrived at the outpost in two pickup trucks and on four motorcycles and opened fired at them. The soldiers and village defense volunteers fired back.
Two attackers were believed shot dead but their colleagues took their bodies away when they fled on the pickup trucks and left behind four motorcycles.
The slain victims at the popst were identified as Pvt Sarawut Nitsayob, Hua Roiwirat and Nitisak Kwanwicha.
Those injured are Sgt Chakkrawan Puangrangsee, Pvt Wanchai Suknit, Pvt Sunan Hongthian, Montru Promma and Kim-eng Sae Phoo.
A joint military and police force was hunting for the militants.
Police believed it was the work of the separatist movement group that earlier declared they would carry out major attacks against state authorities ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadon, which starts on July 19 or 20.
In Yala, an intelligence unit warned soldiers, police and territorial defense volunteers stationed in provincial municipality to prepare for possible major attacks by militants ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The southern intelligence unit said it received a report that five or six militants were now hiding in Yala municipality, looking for an opportunity to attack the city with two car bombs.
The first car to be used was a blue colored Isuzu pickup truck, license plate 8099 Bangkok, and the other an unknown license plate number white color Toyota Fortuner, according to the report.
The unit warned that police and soldiers on duty at various security checkpoints were the main targets of the militants
BangkokPost.com
18 July 2012
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