BANGKOK, July 23 (Reuters) – Five Thai security personnel were killed and six civilians, including two young children, injured in an attack in Thailand’s restive deep south, the military said on Thursday.
About 10 assailants dressed in black and wearing black brimmed hats arrived in a pickup truck and on motorcycles before launching an attack on a roadside checkpoint in Narathiwat province late on Wednesday using military-grade firearms and pipe bombs, the military’s Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 said in a statement.
Five paramilitary rangers were killed in the attack and six civilians were wounded, including a three-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy.
Authorities said the attackers seized three AK-47 rifles, three bulletproof vests and several mobile phones from the checkpoint before fleeing. Security forces later found the pickup truck used in the assault abandoned and set ablaze about 21 km (13 miles) from the scene.
As with most attacks in Thailand’s deep south, no group immediately claimed responsibility.
The government condemned the attack as an act of terrorism that posed “a serious threat to national security” and undermined ongoing efforts to revive the peace process, government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said in a statement.
Thailand’s southern border region along the frontier with Malaysia has been the scene of a decades-long, slow-burning insurgency, with security forces battling groups seeking independence for the predominantly Muslim, ethnically Malay provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla.
The region was once part of the independent Malay sultanate of Patani before it was annexed by Siam under a 1909 treaty with Britain.
The latest phase of the conflict erupted in 2004 and has claimed more than 7,800 lives, according to conflict monitor Deep South Watch.
Peace talks between the Thai government and several insurgent groups began in 2013 under Malaysian facilitation but have repeatedly stalled, yielding little tangible progress.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has pledged to revive negotiations with the main insurgent group, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, after appointing a new chief negotiator in April, although formal talks have yet to resume.
In a rare public statement earlier this month, the BRN said dialogue remained the only viable path to resolving the conflict and expressed appreciation for Malaysia’s continued role as facilitator.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by David Stanway)
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