Gunmen shot dead three men in Thailand’s restive south, the police said Sunday, hours after suspected insurgents killed four soldiers in a gun attack in the same province.
The violence reflects an annual spike in unrest during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in the region bordering Malaysia, where thousands have died in a shadowy insurgency that has raged for eight years.
The police said two Buddhists were gunned down as they rode motorbikes home in Pattani on Saturday night and a Muslim man was shot dead in a separate attack in the early hours of Sunday in the same province.
The killings followed an assault on an army patrol early Saturday. Four soldiers died and two more were injured in the gun attack by around 20 armed militants, according to southern army spokesman Colonel Pramote Prom-in.