restive south

  • South Thailand News

    Thailand’s Southern Insurgency – who’s fighting who?

    Trouble in the ‘south’. Attacks against civilians and rangers. Insurgents attack Thai soldiers – the sorts of headlines that people have read about Thailand’s southern conflict for the past 70 years or so. Thaiger readers may wonder who’s fighting who, and why. The area has been coined the ‘deep south’ or the ‘restive south’ and has become, statistically, a more…

  • South Thailand News

    Soldiers injured in Narathiwat bomb attack

    A bomb attack in the southern province of Narathiwat has injured two army rangers. Narathiwat along with neighbouring provinces Pattani and Yala, and also known as the three Southern Border Provinces, are home to Thailand’s Southern Insurgency. The attack occured on Friday night. Eight rangers were returning to their base when the roadside bomb went off. They had been helping…

  • South Thailand News

    Two bombs explode in front of the Yala provincial offices today

    More violence in Thailand’s south today as two small bombs explode at the front of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre in Yala’s city centre this morning. Many people are reported as injured from the blasts. It’s believed that five provincial police (or soldiers) and three media were wounded in the two explosions. Thai PBS is reporting that 18 people…

  • South Thailand News

    8 people injured, including school children, in Songkhla bomb attack

    Eight people have been injured by shrapnel from a roadside bomb, including two school children. They were amongst a group gathered near a public park in the Sabayoi district of Songkhla, in Thailand’s south today Also amongst the injured were the Sabayoi district assistant chief, a local defence volunteer and Sabayoi villagers. Security authorities currently speculate that southern insurgents detonated…

  • South Thailand News

    Security forces kill two suspected insurgents in Thailand’s south

    Two men suspected of being Islamic insurgents have been shot dead by security forces in Pattani, southern Thailand. The two militants were believed to be members of the National Revolutionary Front, Thai PBS World reports that officials received a tip-off that the men were hiding out at a property in Khlong Tan Yong. The house was surrounded by the military…

  • South Thailand News

    Ranger stabbed by attacker linked to southern Thailand insurgents

    PHOTO: Thai PBS World A paramilitary ranger remains in a critical condition in hospital after he was stabbed by a man who tried, unsuccessfully, to steal his service rifle. The man was quickly subdued by another ranger. The attacker reportedly died following the incident. The scuffle took place yesterday near Ban Suwo defence outpost in Narathiwat. It was reported that…

  • South Thailand News

    Thai military says martial law in south will not be lifted

    PHOTO: Sumeth Panpetch, Associated Press Following the insurgent attack that killed 15 volunteers at a security checkpoint earlier this week, the Army says it’s not planning to lift the emergency laws currently in place in the south of the country. The attack is believed to have been carried out by a militant group identified as the BRN or National Revolution…

  • South Thailand News

    Volunteer village guard system in Thailand’s south up for review after Tuesday’s deadly attack

    PHOTO: Facebook/Yala ToDay The village guard system, used as part of the local volunteer security in the Deep South of Thailand, is set to be completely reviewed, or replaced by a more mobile system where village defence volunteer units will be on regular patrol to seek insurgents, instead of being a “sitting duck”. 15 volunteers and villages were killed after…

  • South Thailand News

    Insurgents detonate car-bomb and fire at a security outpost in Pattani

    PHOTO: Thai PBS World Southern insurgents have damaged eight vehicles in front of an old police station in Mai Kaen district in Pattani after detonating a car bomb. The incident happened last night in Thailand’s southern border province of Pattani. A security outpost in Yarang district was also under fire from a different group of suspected insurgents last night as well.…

  • World News

    Suicide bomber explodes bomb at Philippine army base, Jolo Island

    PHOTO: AFP/Ted Aljibe “No group has yet claimed the attack, which came a day after an IS-claimed bombing wounded eight at a market on the island of Mindanao.” A suicide bomber, dressed in a traditional Muslim woman’s abaya gown, has died after detonating a bomb outside a military camp in the southern Philippines. No other casualties were reported, authorities said.…

  • World News

    Southern rebel remains unresponsive in hospital following alleged torture

    Thai security officials have confirmed that four more people were killed in a late-night attack on July 24 by Muslim insurgents on a military outpost in the southern province of Pattani. Militants struck the remote base throwing grenades and laying down nearly an hour of automatic fire. The attack is considered “payback’ for the alleged torture of Abdulloh Esormusor. Human Rights…

  • South Thailand News

    Villagers taken in under martial law for questioning over Yala shoot-out, Southern Thailand

    PHOTO: Charoon Thongnual Security officials have interrogated 18 people living near the site of this week’s clash between soldiers and suspected insurgents in Yala’s Yaha district. “They were brought in for questioning under martial law as authorities intend to go after the unidentified gunmen in Monday’s clash,” a source said yesterday. The Nation reports that the gunfight lasted several hours…

  • Opinion

    No sign of concrete policies for conflict in the far South

    by Don Pathan Parties offer few if any answers for a 15 year old deadly insurgency that successive governments have failed to quell. Peace and conflict have never been significant parts of any political party platform in Thailand. This is because a sustainable solution calls for long-term commitment to a policy that could prove to be politically costly. Lasting peace requires…

  • South Thailand News

    A new round of Southern peace talks gives hope but the Junta is stalling during the election campaign

    Peace talks to end the long-running conflict in Thailand’s southernmost provinces hit a stumbling block last week when Thailand’s new peace negotiator failed to attend a scheduled meeting. The struggle, commonly referred to in international media as the ‘southern insurgency’, has been between Muslim guerilla fighters and the Thai army, partly over borders, and partly fueled by religious and cultural differences.…

  • Thailand News

    Bomb and grenade attacks rattle Thailand’s southern provinces

    The Thai PM has described the attackers as “opportunists” after a wave of coordinated bomb attacks by suspected insurgents hit Thailand’s “deep south” in the lead-up to new year and the resulting long weekend. The latest attacks occurred on Friday night in a series of seven separate incidents in three separate districts of Narathiwat province. Two bomb attacks occurred in…

  • South Thailand News

    Suspected insurgent killed during Songkhla shootout

    A suspected insurgent was shot dead in Songkhla’s Thepha district early today (Monday) after Army troops, rangers and police joined forces to try to arrest the man. The operation at 1am in Moo 3 village in Tambon Sakom also resulted in the arrest of two other suspected insurgents. Police identified the slain suspect as 40 year old Hamadaho Semsun who…

  • South Thailand News

    Two rangers killed, four others injured in Pattani ambush

    FILE PHOTO – The Nation Another attack in the deep south. Thai PBS reports that two para-military rangers have been killed and four others seriously wounded in an ambush by a group of armed men. The attack was followed by a gun fight in the Nong Chik district of Pattani late last night (Tuesday). Nong Chik police headed to the…