BANGKOK, June 19 (AP) - (Kyodo)— A roadside bomb exploded in southern Thailand's Pattani Province on Tuesday, killing three people including a district chief and an army officer, police said.
Killed were Maikaen district chief Chaipat Raksayos, Lt. Col. Surasak Phosutha of the Internal Security Operations Command and a security volunteer. Three others riding in the same car suffered injuries.
The police said the group of six officers led by the district chief was on the way back from inspecting schools burnt by insurgents late Monday.
Nearly 3,000 people have been killed in a violent insurgency in the mainly Muslim southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat that began in early 2004.