Bangkok, Thailand. In a series of coordinated attacks, Thai authorities are dealing with a number of unknown dead and injured from insurgent forces attacking in the nation’s southern region today.
Two suspected insurgents have been reported dead after a series of well coordinated attacks rocked 15 separate locations in Thailand’s southern border provinces Wednesday according to Thai law enforcement officials.
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The evening saw attacks widespread in the Malay Pattani region’s Narathiwat, Pattani and Songkhla provinces, according to Thai law enforcement officers responding to the crisis.
There were twelve attacks reported in Narathiwat and Pattani, where grenades were fired or hurled at military personnel, police stations, and villagers’ homes. Suspected insurgents have also opened fire on a unit of troops with an unknown casualty count.
Multiple mortar rounds reportedly killed two attackers in Songkhla province when they fell and exploded before reaching military targets, according to one report
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There has been a low level separatist insurgency in Thailand’s Muslim south for decades but intensified recently with attacks in Bangkok and Phuket blamed on southern militants.
Last year, a wave of bomb and incendiary device attacks killed at least four people and injured more than 30, including about a dozen foreign nationals. Unlike Wednesday evening’s attacks, those had targeted areas popular with tourists such as Phuket and the resort town of Hua Hin.