HAT YAI, Thailand — Violence presumed to have been carried out by Muslim separatists has hit southern Thailand for the fourth day in a row, with three paramilitary soldiers wounded and a female civilian shot dead Saturday. The soldiers in Narathiwat province were hurt in an ambush of their pickup truck, while the woman was killed in Pattani province. On Friday night, four people in Narathiwat were wounded by one of several bombs suspected of being planted by the Muslim insurgents, security officials said, and there was a shootout between security forces and suspected insurgents who attacked a defence outpost at a small rural village. The insurgency has mostly affected the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, which have Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Songkhla, with a substantial Muslim population, has generally been spared the violence, though its biggest city, Hat Yai, has suffered several bombings.

Source: National Post December 29, 2018 09:14 UTC