Three Thai soldiers killed in gunfight with rebels

Three Thai soldiers were killed Wednesday in a clash with separatist rebels in the kingdom's insurgency-hit deep south, police said.

The troops were on foot patrol in Yala province when the insurgents confronted them on the road and opened fire, prompting a 20-minute gun battle which left three of them severely injured, police said.

The separatists fled the scene, while the wounded soldiers died later in hospital.

Elsewhere in the troubled region, where more than 2,800 people have died in four years of unrest, two primary schools were burnt down overnight, local authorities said.

The Muslim-majority south was an ethnic Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it a century ago, provoking decades of tension.

AFP
 

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