Gunmen killed nine people and injured two others in five separate attacks in the far South on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the lethal attack on rebels hiding in Krue Sae mosque.
Thai passengers wait for a train watched by a soldier at a railway station in Thailand's restive southern Yala province. Suspected militants in Thailand's deep south killed nine people and injured two others in five separate attacks on the eve of a key anniversary for the restive region, police said.
Militants opened fire on a Muslim defence volunteer while he was watching a football match in Yala province on Monday evening, police said.
Another man was killed nearby in a drive-by shooting in Yala township minutes later.
Police said at least six gunmen in a pick-up truck later stormed into a home in another district close by, opening fire on a family of five.
Two men and a woman, aged between 33 and 62, and a 16-year-old girl were killed, they said. A 13-year-old girl was injured.
Police believe the same group killed two other Muslim men found dead at a nearby prayer house 500 metres away.
Militants shot two other men while they were hunting animals in a forest in the early hours of Tuesday, also in Yala province. One of the men died at the scene while the other was wounded and taken to hospital.
March 28 is the fifth anniversary of the Krue Sae mosque incident, in which security forces killed 32 men taking cover in the main mosque in Pattani province, which neighbours Yala.
The raid, condemned by rights groups, took place after an uprising across all three restive southern provinces -- Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
More than 3,600 people have been killed and thousands more injured in five years of separatist violence in the region.
Buddhist-majority Thailand annexed the ethnic Malay area in 1902, sparking decades of tension.
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- Writer: AFP
