A total of 12 people were killed by terrorists insurgents in southern Thailand in a series of attacks on Monday and Tuesday.Two rubber tappers were ambushed and killed on a local road at a rubber plantation in Pattani province district early Tuesday morning. Witnesses said the couple were going to work on a motorcycle when gunmen hiding in the roadside forest fired on them with an AK47 assault rifle and 11 mm handgun. The attackerss then fled. The victims were hit several times and died on the spot.
On Monday night, another couple were gunned down in the same district. The Buddhist couple were on a motorcycle in front of the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund about 8 p.m. when gunmen opened fire upon them and then fled.
Police blamed separatist
In another district of Pattani on Monday afternoon, three defense volunteers were gunned down and the killers made off with their firearms.
Surasak Saksongmuang, 27, and his father Nam Saksongmuang, 57, were found dead on a local road next to a pickup truck. Somsak Khunchum, 42, was found dead inside. Their bodies and the vehicle were riddled with bullets.
The trio were on their way back from a security meeting at the Yarang district office when they saw someone on a motorcycle they knew and stopped for a chat. A pickup truck then drove past and two men in the back opened fire at the defense volunteers' vehicle. The motorcycle sped away. The assailants searched the pickup and took with them an AKA rifle, an M-16 rifle and two pistols before fleeing.
Police found more than 100 spent cartridge shells scattered on the road.
On the same day a pair of Muslim men were also killed in a drive-by shooting in neighbouring Yala province. Two vegetable vendors were also gunned down in Songkhla province, which had been relatively untouched by the violence until a number of attacks this year, including a series of car bombs in April that left 15 people dead.
In Narathiwat province, a village health volunteer was killed in a drive-by shooting on Tuesday morning. The attack occurred on the Sungai Padi-Cho Airong road at about 6 a.m.
Police found five spent cartridge shells from a 9 mm handgun at the scene and were told that a woman had been taken to the hospital. The victim was identified as Suena Seng, 44, a health volunteer. She had been hit by three bullets - in the head, right shoulder and torso.
The victim's husband, Sama-air Seng, 49, told police that he, his wife and another woman were traveling along the road to work at their rubber plantation when a gunman riding pillion on another motorcycle fired on Suena. The attackers then fled.
Suena and the female passenger fell from the motorcycle but Mr Sama-air escped unhurt. The woman passenger was also unhurt in the attack. The attackers fled. Mr Sama-air asked the driver of a passing pickup truck to take his wife to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Separatist