Two beheaded, clinics attacked in Thailand

Posted Fri Aug 10, 2007 0:00am AEST

Two Buddhist health workers have been gunned down in a clinic in Thailand's restive south, while two others were beheaded in a grisly killing spree blamed on separatist rebels, police say.

Three other people have been killed in shooting attacks around the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia, in the latest sign of intensifying violence this month.

The attacks came as authorities stepped up a crackdown on separatists in the region where more than 2,400 people have been killed and thousands more wounded since the unrest broke out in January 2004.

The two health workers were killed inside a clinic in Pattani province late on Wednesday (local time), when militants stormed into the building and shot them at their desks, police said.

Authorities shut down 15 nearby clinics in response and could not say when they would reopen.

Separatist rebels also torched two schools in Pattani, gutting the buildings early on Thursday.

Rebels often attack government schools as they are seen as symbols of Thailand's attempt to impose Buddhist Thai culture on the Muslim-majority region.

Meanwhile, militants have beheaded two elderly Buddhists inside their homes in Pattani and then set the houses on fire, police say.

The charred remains of the headless bodies were found early on Thursday.

In nearby Narathiwat province, three people including a soldier were killed in separate shootings.

The restive region was once an autonomous Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it a century ago. Separatist violence has flared periodically ever since.

After the military seized power in Thailand last September, the post-coup Government offered a series of olive branches to the militants but the unrest has only worsened.

This year the Government has boosted military spending and deployed more security forces as part of a tougher approach to tackling the militants.

More than 200 people are being held at army bases around the region as part of the Government's latest crackdown.

- AFP