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Suspected Muslim separatists shot dead a Buddhist family of four in Thailand's deep south, police said on Tuesday, the latest attack in an escalation of violence in the region. The killings followed a bloody raid on an army camp and a big roadside bombing in the past 12 days that were believed to have been carried out by ethnic Malay Muslim rebels seeking autonomy from predominantly Buddhist Thailand. The bodies of the Buddhist couple, their daughter, 15, and 7-year-old son were found in a forest in Yala, one of three Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Malaysia where more than 4,300 people have...

SNIPPET: "The first bomb, hidden in a motorcycle, exploded near a car showroom in Yala province, 1,100 km (680 miles) south of Bangkok, police said. As rescue workers and bomb squads arrived at the scene, the second bomb exploded in a street 30 meters away."

SNIPPET: "SUSPECTED Islamic insurgents shot and killed two people and wounded three others in a bomb blast in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south, police said. Gunmen broke into a house in Yala province and shot dead a 16-year-old Buddhist girl, also wounding her 29-year-old husband, they said.... More than 3900 people have died in shootings, bomb blasts, beheadings and crucifixions since a separatist insurgency erupted in Thailand's southern provinces bordering Malaysia in January 2004."

March 8, 2009 PATTANI, Thailand, March 7 (Reuters) - S SNIPPET: "Pattani and the neighbouring provinces of Narathiwat and Yala, abutting Malaysia, were a Muslim sultanate until annexed a century ago by predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Around 80 percent of people there are Muslim and speak a Malay dialect. The violence has ranged from drive-by shootings to bombings and beheadings and often targets Buddhists and Muslims associated with the Thai state, such as police, soldiers, government officials and teachers."

February 26, 2009 Thailand: Jihadists behead three people this week, bringing their total to 47 "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks..." Qur'an 47:4 They just want Sharia -- as always. "Thailand: More beheadings in troubled Muslim south," from AKI, February 26 (thanks to C. Cantoni): Narathiwat, 26 Feb. (AKI) - Suspected Islamist rebels have decapitated three people in Thailand's Muslim dominated south in the past week, police said on Thursday. Three people were killed late on Wednesday in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat , and one of the victims was decapitated, police said....

February 20, 2009 "Thailand jihadis decapitate soldiers" SNIPPET: "PATTANI, Thailand (AP) — Suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed a military convoy and beheaded two soldiers in southern Thailand on Friday in the second such attack this month, police said. More than 20 gunmen armed with automatic rifles ambushed a group of five pairs of soldiers traveling on motorcycles after they finished escorting teachers to school in Yala province, said police Col. Somphien Phuwaphongphitak." SNIPPET: "The insurgents target Buddhists and also Muslims who they believe have collaborated with the government [i.e., "apostates"]. The attacks — which include drive-by shootings and bombings — are...

Suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire on nine Buddhists who were riding in a commuter van in Thailand's restive south Wednesday, killing all of them execution-style... The attack prompted officials to step up security in the south, where a Muslim insurgency has claimed more than 2,000 lives since 2004. Suspected insurgents bombed the van as it slowed into a curve in the road, which they also had blocked with a large tree trunk, said police Lt. Kitti Mankhong, a duty officer in the Yaha district of Yala province, where the attack occurred. Armed with assault rifles, the attackers first shot at...

Five Buddhists have been killed in shootings throughout Thailand's Muslim-majority south, where Islamic separatists have battled the government for three years, police said Sunday. A Buddhist couple was killed late Saturday in a drive-by shooting as they returned home from market ... Some 2,000 people have been killed in restive south since the violence erupted in 2004 along this mainly Buddhist country's southern border with Malaysia. Violence has recently escalated in the region despite a raft of peace-building measures proposed by Thailand's military-backed government.

FIVE people were shot dead and one policeman was wounded in a string of drive-by shootings by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, police said. A 60-year-old Buddhist cattle raiser was gunned down while walking, before suspected insurgents burned his body and left it on the roadside in Yala, one of three violence-torn southern provinces bordering Malaysia. A 52-year-old Buddhist street ice cream seller was also shot dead on Friday by two suspected insurgents on a motorcycle in Yala where another Muslim villager, 27, was killed late on the same day while riding a motorcycle, police said. In...

Islamic militants today shot dead four Buddhists in two separate attacks in Thailand's mainly Muslim south, where an insurgency has raged for more than two years... In one attack, two teenagers in Islamic students' dress and riding a motorcycle, shot and killed three Buddhists in Yala... “The militants exploited the fact that the men were shopping at a grocery store and could not defend themselves, even though they had a gun,” police Colonel Somsak Wannawak said. Earlier a militant shot dead a Buddhist man in Pattani province while he was riding a bus... More than 1400 people have died in...

Muslim villager shot dead 05nov05 A MUSLIM villager has been shot dead by suspected Islamic insurgents in Thailand's restive south while walking home after evening prayers at a mosque, police said today. Leeya Samukama, 27, was killed in an ambush late yesterday in Narthiwat, one of Thailand's violence-plagued southern provinces, they said. The suspected militants also shot and wounded Leeya's friend, Nasuha Ar-ware, 25, who was admitted to hospital, police said, adding they collected several shells from an AK47 assault rifle from the scene. Violence in the three Muslim-majority provinces of mainly Buddhist Thailand has killed more than 1000 people...

Bangkok, 9 Nov. (AKI) - As the violence in Thailand's hree southernmost provinces shows no sign of abating, prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has announced an impending “D-Day” against the rebels. In the last 24 hours, Muslim insurgents have attacked Yala Provincial Hall and a series of other minor targets, while Bangkok has announced the killing of Hasueming Jarong, a leading member of the Pattani Mujahideen, one of the groups fighting for an independent Islamic state comprising Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said that the government has prepared a large scale offensive against the rebels to be launched...

Asaha Dajing, 19, appeared to be thriving at an Islamic college in Yala, 20 miles north of this remote village. He had just won a $125 creative writing scholarship, big money in these parts. His family was proud. But Asaha had friends his parents didn't know about: Islamic radicals who were recruiting impressionable young men for a mysterious holy war here in the jungles of southern Thailand. Asaha's secret life was exposed only by his death. He was killed by police along with 13 other militants April 28 when they staged a suicidal assault on a government office near this...

Last year it was origami "peace bombs" in a futile attempt to quell the violence in Southern Thailand. This year it was to be free televisions, cable and English football but the Saudi clerics, not to be out-matched, were quick to riposte with an adroit "hat trick" of their own by declaring football un-islamic. After the brutal, sadistic and sub-human torture and killing of Sub-Lieutenant Vinai Nabut and Petty Officer Khamthon Thongeiat and the the continued violence, the ball is now in Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's court. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has ambiguously vowed that "justice will be served", but...