Four killed in attack on southern Thailand school

Muslim insurgents disguised as paramilitary rangers have attacked troops protecting a school in southern Thailand, killing four soldiers and wounding two more, police said.

A six-year-old boy was shot in the stomach during the assault.

Police spokesman Satanfah Wamasing said 15 assailants walked up to the school just before the attack and began talking with soldiers assigned to guard teachers there. Shortly after, they opened fire at close range and fled with four of the soldiers’ M16 automatic rifles.

The bloodshed in Narathiwat province’s Rue So district was the latest in a wave of violence to hit Thailand’s Muslim-dominated southern provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004.

Government soldiers are often designated to accompany teachers travelling to and from schools in the region, as well as monks collecting alms.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, warned Thai authorities that “the simultaneous use of school for military and education purposes will put civilians at risk”.

Mr Sunai condemned the attack, saying: “Insurgents knew they could also harm students and teachers. Such brutality is sickening.”

In a separate incident in neighbouring Pattani province, two motorcycle-bound gunmen shot dead a 48-year-old in a market in Nong Chik district, said police spokesman Chonnavi Chamaroek.

Amnesty International condemned insurgents for repeatedly targeting civilians in the conflict, saying such attacks constitute war crimes.

Amnesty says non-combatants have accounted for two-thirds of the nearly 5,000 deaths reported during the insurgency over the last eight years, while close to 8,000 people have been wounded.

Most of the violence has been confined to three southern provinces dominated by ethnic Malay Muslims who are a minority in mostly Buddhist Thailand. The area used to be an Islamic sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand in the early 20th century.