Two killed after prayers in Thai south: police

Suspected Islamic militants shot dead two Muslim men after evening prayers during the holy month of Ramadan in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, police said Friday.

A Thai soldier stands guard in Thailand's restive southern province of Yala. Suspected Islamic militants shot dead two Muslim men after evening prayers during the holy month of Ramadan in the country's insurgency-hit south, police said Friday.

A village defence volunteer was killed in a drive-by shooting in Yala, the main town in the province of the same name, as he returned home from a mosque on Thursday night, said police.

Separately around five gunmen ambushed and shot dead a village chief in Narathiwat province, also as he was leaving evening prayers on Thursday, they said.

Thailand's Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia have suffered a spike in violence during Ramadan, Islam's traditional month of fasting and worship.

Nearly 3,900 people have been killed and thousands more injured since a separatist insurgency erupted in the south in early 2004, led by shadowy militants who have killed Buddhists and Muslims alike.

The region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until it was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in 1902, sparking decades of tensions.