YALA, June 20 — Two persons were killed and five others were wounded in three separate assaults in Thailand’s restive southern border provinces of Yala and Pattani today.
In Yala’s Raman district, a clash between security personnel and a group of militants in the morning left Madaree Tayae, a 42-year-old insurgent, as a fatality. A policeman and a soldier were wounded in the same encounter.
The other insurgents fled the scene.
Mr Madaree was a Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) member with an outstanding arrest warrant issued in 2011, according to Pol Maj Gen Suchart Theerasawat, deputy chief of the Southern Border Provinces Police Operation Center.
An initial investigation found the dead RKK member was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition. The police also found an 11mm handgun some 50 metres from Mr Madaree’s body as well as collected evidence for further investigation.
In a separate incident, Mahama Domada, a 48-year-old village head, was gunned down in the afternoon in front of his home in Raman district. No further details were available.
Elsewhere, three soldiers were wounded in a bomb ambush while they were on foot patrol in Pattani’s Mayo district, according to Pol Col Kongark Suwannakham of Mayo police station.
The three injured were Sgt Waelao Haleng, 35, Pvt Tossapol Noibuatip, 22, and Pvt Kittisak Srisuk, 23.
The powerful explosion also caused a crater with fragments of the explosive device scattered across the area.\
