Thailand searches for suspects after attack kills five soldiers

Thai authorities said Thursday they were searching for the people responsible after about 10 attackers opened fire and threw pipe bombs at a security checkpoint in Narathiwat province, killing five soldiers and injuring several civilians. The assault struck the Bukeh Sami checkpoint in Tanyong Mas, Rangae district, near a residential area at about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, and video from Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 showed alleged attackers riding in the back of a black pickup truck before the attack.

The wounded included civilians, and one account put the number of injured civilians at six. The attack came a day after a separate car bombing elsewhere in Narathiwat wounded a police officer, adding to a burst of violence in the province and raising pressure on security forces already deployed across Thailand’s far south.

The killings fit a conflict that has simmered since 2004 across Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, along with parts of Songkhla, where ethnic Malay-Muslim identity, centralized rule from Bangkok, economic gaps and separatist sentiment have kept the insurgency alive. Deep South Watch has counted 10,116 attacks and 5,999 deaths over a 22-year period in the region, a tally that underscores how persistent the violence has been despite years of military operations, checkpoints and peace efforts.

The strike also showed that armed groups still retain the ability to plan and execute coordinated attacks in a heavily policed zone. With soldiers hit at a checkpoint and civilians caught in the blast zone, the attack is likely to trigger more patrols, intelligence work and checkpoint security in the south, where ordinary travel can quickly be disrupted by convoy movements, road closures and tighter controls.

Thai PBS identified the site as the Bukeh Sami security checkpoint in Tanyong Mas, and the timing, near dusk in a populated area, suggested the attackers were able to move close enough to hit both security personnel and nearby residents. The assault left the government facing the same problem that has defined the southern insurgency for two decades: how to contain violence without deepening the grievances that helped sustain it.