Five more killed on bloody night in South
AFP and Bangkok Post, NARATHIWAT
A man wanted over the killing of two marines died in a gunfight during a bloody night that claimed five more lives in the Muslim-majority South, police said yesterday.
The suspected insurgent, Alinsan Nikaji, was killed after 100 police and soldiers sealed off the village of Tanyong Limo in Rangae district as they searched for a militant hideout, police said.
A 20-minute gunfight broke out after they found four suspected rebels inside a home in the village. Alinsan, 25, was killed during the battle.
Authorities had a one-million-baht (30,300 dollar) reward out for his arrest over his role in a dramatic hostage-taking that ended in the beating to death of two marines in the village in 2005.
Two other men, each with 500,000-baht rewards on their heads, were also arrested, police said.
They were Borheng Baka, 43, and Rusmin Yama, 23.
According to Rangae district chief Prakong Kongkaew, district police chief Pol Col Nitinai Langyanai and Lt-Col Chalermchai Sutthinuan, commander of the 38th task force of Narathiwat, Mr Borheng was involved in the killing of the two marines and Mr Rusmin was on the wanted list for murdering the chief of the Tanyongmas tambon administrative organisation and another civilian last month.
The hostage crisis in Tanyong Limo was one of the most dramatic incidents in the four-year insurgency that has claimed more than 3,300 lives in the southern provinces.
Hundreds of veiled women and young children faced down heavily armed soldiers for 18 hours, while militants held two marines hostage inside the village's mosque.
The women only allowed the soldiers to enter the village after the marines had been beaten to death and the hostage takers had escaped.
The latest raid on Tanyong Limo came during a bloody night of attacks across the southern region.
Two Muslim construction workers, aged 24 and 29, were shot dead on Friday in an ambush in Songkhla, while a 50-year-old Buddhist woman was killed in a drive-by shooting in nearby Yala, police said.
A 48-year-old Muslim man was gunned down on Friday inside his home in Narathiwat, while a 23-year-old Muslim rubber tapper was shot dead in the same province yesterday.
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