Five killed in Narathiwat clash
One soldier, two villagers and two militants
were shot dead in a battle at a military outpost in Narathiwat’s Rueso
district on Tuesday night, duty officer at Rueso police station Lt
Sithanon Samlee said on Wednesday.
Another three soldiers and two civilians were wounded in the attack, according to Pol Lt Sithanon.
About 6.50pm, Rueso police received a reported of a gunfight at an
outpost inside a multipurpose building of tambon Rueso municipality in
Ban Tha Rua of tambon Rueso, he said.
Police rushed to the scene and only to find out the militants had
placed logs and burning tyres on the local road to obstruct them from
reaching the scene, 1.5 kilometres away.
After ten minutes of clearing off the road, police reached the spot
and found more than 100 spent empty cartridges from M16 and AK47 assault
rifles scattered in the area.
Nearby villagers told police that the injured people and dead bodies were already taken to Rueso hospital.
Witnesses told police that soldiers were relaxing when about 30 men
in black arrived at the outpost in two pickup trucks and on four
motorcycles and opened fired at them. The soldiers and village defence
volunteers fired back.
Two attackers were believed shot dead but their colleagues took their
bodies away when they fled on the pickup trucks and left behind four
motorcycles.
The slain victims at the popst were identified as Pvt Sarawut Nitsayob, Hua Roiwirat and Nitisak Kwanwicha.
Those injured are Sgt Chakkrawan Puangrangsee, Pvt Wanchai Suknit, Pvt Sunan Hongthian, Montru Promma and Kim-eng Sae Phoo.
A joint military and police force was hunting for the militants.
Police believed it was the work of the separatist movement group that
earlier declared they would carry out major attacks against state
authorities ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadon, which starts
on July 19 or 20.
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