Gunman kills three in conflict-hit southern Thailand
FILE PHOTO: Thai-Muslim students hold a candlelight vigil for victims of the Tak Bai shooting on its third anniversary, outside the United Nations building in Bangkok, October 25, 2007. Last year, a Thai court dismissed the long-delayed Tak Bai case, brought by victims' families against seven officials, when the statute of limitations expired. - Reuters
BANGKOK: A gunman has shot dead three people including a child in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, police said Saturday (May 3), as authorities pursued the suspect.
The attacker opened fire late Friday in a residential area of Tak Bai district in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand's far south gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency.
Three people were killed, including a nine-year-old girl and a 75-year-old man, police said.
"One victim died at the scene, and two others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital," local police officer Watthana Thurarat told AFP, adding that two more people were wounded.
Police believe the suspect, who remains at large, is linked to a rebel group, Watthana said.
Violence frequently rocks the kingdom's southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where separatists seeking greater autonomy for the religiously distinct region have killed more than 7,000 people since 2004.
However, attacks on unarmed civilians in residential areas remain relatively rare, with most targeting security personnel.
In 2004, Thai security forces shot into a crowd of protesters outside a police station in Tak Bai, killing seven.
Subsequently, 78 others suffocated in the back of military trucks after they were arrested - a deadly crackdown widely seen as a trigger for the southern unrest in the Buddhist-majority country.
Last year, a Thai court dismissed the long-delayed Tak Bai case, brought by victims' families against seven officials, when the statute of limitations expired.
Analysts have warned the decision could further inflame tensions in the region. - AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Two Chinese aircraft carriers seen in Pacific for first time: Tokyo
TOKYO: Japan said Tuesday (June 10) that two Chinese aircraft carriers had been seen operating in the Pacific for the first time as Beijing boosts its military capability in far-flung areas. On Monday (June 9), China's Shandong carrier and four other vessels, including a missile destroyer, sailed inside the Japanese economic waters surrounding the remote Pacific atoll of Okinotori, Tokyo's defence ministry said. Its fighter jets and helicopters conducted take-offs and landings there, the ministry said. The fleet of five warships was also seen sailing on Saturday 550km southeast of Miyako Island near Taiwan, it added. China's other operational aircraft carrier Liaoning (pic) and its fleet entered Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Pacific over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, Tokyo previously said. "This is the first time two Chinese aircraft carriers were spotted operating in the Pacific at the same time," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP on Tuesday. "We believe the Chinese military's purpose is to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas," he said. China's use of naval and air assets to press its territorial claims has rattled the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region. Japanese and US defence officials say China wants to push the American military out of the so-called "first island chain" from Japan down through the Philippines. Eventually, its strategy is to dominate areas west of the "second island chain" in the Pacific between Japan's remote Ogasawara Islands and the US territory of Guam, they say. The Liaoning's recent cruise eastwards marked the first time the Japanese defence ministry has said a Chinese aircraft carrier had crossed the second island chain. In September, the warship sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan and entered Japan's contiguous waters, an area up to 24 nautical miles from its coast. At the time, Tokyo called that move "unacceptable" and expressed "serious concerns" to Beijing. Under international law, a state has rights to the management of natural resources and other economic activities within its EEZ, which is within 200 nautical miles (370km) of its coastline. - AFP
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Australia has stabilising role amid rising global division, says PM Albanese
FILE PHOTO: Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reacts as he speaks at a Labor party election night event, after local media projected the Labor Party's victory, on the day of the Australian federal election, in Sydney, Australia, May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams/File Photo SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia will seek to disprove the "corrosive" idea that democratic institutions are failing amid significant global uncertainty, and play a stabilising role in the region, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday. In his first major speech since his centre-left Labor party was re-elected in May, Albanese said the rise of far right and far left populism elsewhere in the world was because people felt they did not have a stake in the economy and that institutions were not working for them. "We are living in a time of significant global uncertainty - and that reaches beyond just economic instability, it is the more corrosive proposition that politics and government and democratic institutions, including a free media, are incapable of meeting the demands of this moment," he said in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra. Albanese said that while some "cynically seek to harvest it", the Australian government saw its responsibility was to disprove such perceptions. He also referred to an Australian journalist hit by a rubber bullet during protests on Sunday in the U.S. city of Los Angeles as "horrific", and said that his government had contacted the U.S. over the incident to say it was not acceptable. Albanese is expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump for the first time next week on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada, where the security allies will discuss tariffs and a request from the United States for Australia to increase defence spending from 2% to 3.5% of gross domestic product. Albanese has declined to publicly commit to a defence spending target, saying Australia would focus on capability needs, such as local manufacturing of missiles. "I think that Australia should decide what we spend on Australia's defence," he said on Tuesday, adding the country's ties in the Pacific and Asia were also important for its security. Australia was focussed on strengthening relationships in Asia, amid strategic competition in the region, he said. (Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Ukraine's drone attacks temporarily halt flights in Moscow, across Russia
(Reuters) -Ukraine's overnight drone strikes have forced a temporary suspension of flights in all airports serving Moscow and the country's second-largest city St. Petersburg, but caused no damage, Russian officials reported on Tuesday. Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry - which reports only how many were downed, not the number Ukraine launched - said on the Telegram messaging app. Nearly half of the drones were destroyed over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, the ministry said. Three drones were downed over the Moscow region and two over the Leningrad region, of which St. Petersburg is the regional capital. Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia temporarily halted flights at all four major airports serving Moscow and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport, as well as at airports in nine other cities to ensure safety, it said on Telegram. Flights in Moscow and some other cities were restored by Tuesday morning, but restrictions were still in place in St. Petersburg at 0430 GMT. Regional governors, who wrote about the attacks on Telegram, did not report any damage caused by the attacks. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Chris Reese and Saad Sayeed)
