Scores killed in Thai gun battles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3665293.stm
Security forces have killed at least 100 suspected Islamic
militants in a spate of gun battles in south Thailand.
At least 30 died in a raid on a mosque where they were taking
refuge from clashes with the army, officials said.
Others died during scuffles near police bases, which the attackers
stormed in a series of co-ordinated attacks.
Thailand's prime minister has blamed local gangs, but many
officials fear international militant groups may be behind the
attacks.
The BBC correspondent in Bangkok, Kylie Morris, says the fighting
is a serious escalation of the violence that began in early January
with a raid on a military arsenal.
In the intervening months, more than 100 people have been killed in
almost daily small-scale attacks.
Wednesday's violence took place in the three Muslim-dominated
provinces of Thailand - Yala, Pattani and Songkhla.
Police in Yala said the attackers were mainly young men, armed with
guns and machetes.
They carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks on police bases
and village defence posts in the region, security forces
said.
Although officials were tipped off to expect the dawn attacks, few
would have envisaged their scale, our correspondent says.
Abdulrazak Ali, a local Islamic committee leader, told the BBC: "I
have never dreamed that such a serious incident could take place
here. It's unprecedented - so many deaths in one day."
"We are sorry that those youths had to lose their lives because, as
the authorities said, they were misled by those with ill
intentions," he said.
Mosque
attack
Clashes took place near 10 police outposts around the southern
provinces. One particularly bloody battle erupted in the Krue Se
mosque in Pattani - where up to 38 people reportedly lost their
lives.
Police fired tear gas and rocket-propelled grenades into the
mosque, village headman Waedaloh Hayeesohoh told the Associated
Press news agency.
Five security personnel are said to be among those killed in
Wednesday's violence, compared with more than 100 insurgent
deaths.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the toll among security
forces was low because the militants had only been armed with
machetes and a few guns.
He described those who carried out the attacks as "youths from the
southern provinces" whose actions were "not linked with
international terrorists".
But some analysts have voiced concerns that the attackers could
have links to militant groups outside Thailand.
One of the men killed in Wednesday's violence was found to be
wearing a shirt with JI emblazoned on the back - a possible
reference to Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for terrorist
attacks across South East Asia, including the Bali bombings.
Government
crackdown
Many observers say the current troubles in Thailand's south have
been exacerbated by the government's own policy of cracking down on
militants.
Islamic community leaders say the tactics employed by security
forces have been heavy-handed, and may have served to encourage
those who already felt disenfranchised.
The alienation felt by Thailand's Muslim minority has been the
source of a decades-old separatist struggle, which decreased in
intensity after an amnesty in the late 1980s but resurfaced again
this January.
Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, with its 4% Muslim population
concentrated in the troubled southern provinces - Pattani, Yala,
Songkhla and Narathiwat.
