Bangkok---Three suspected insurgents were killed in a shoot-out with soldiers in Thailand's restive deep south Friday after a 12-hour stand-off at a house ended in bloodshed, police told AFP.
Acting on a tip-off, soldiers surrounded a house where a group of suspected rebels -- who are fighting for greater autonomy for the Muslim-majority southernmost region -- were holed-up since the early hours of Friday morning.
"There was a long negotiation to persuade them to surrender," a police official from Mayo district in Pattani province told AFP, requesting anonymity.
But the discussions collapsed and a prolonged firefight erupted, before heavily-armed security forces stormed the building, ending the incident 12 hours after it began.
"Three insurgents were killed in the clash with soldiers... two others escaped," he said, adding that several guns -- including assault rifles -- were abandoned by the suspects.
Conflict analysts Deep South Watch say 6,300 people -- the majority civilians -- have been killed in a bitter, bloody and seemingly intractable 11-year insurgency mainly in Thailand's southernmost provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.
A patchwork of disparate but seemingly well-organised rebel groups are calling for level of autonomy for the culturally distinct Muslim majority south, as well as an amnesty for their prisoners and wanted fighters.
Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist nation, annexed the region more than 100 years ago and stands accused of perpetrating severe rights abuses as well as railroading the distinctive local culture through clumsy -- and often forced -- assimilation schemes.
The Thai junta has vowed to reboot peace talks to end the near-daily violence, which is characterised by roadside bombs and ambushes targeting Thai security forces and assassinations of Muslim or Buddhist locals perceived to have collaborated with the Thai state.
But a date for new talks has not been agreed, with rebels yet to confirm the terms they are willing to accept to return to the negotiating table.
A previous round of talks with the toppled civilian administration collapsed as a political crisis engulfed Bangkok.
The Thai army now want assurances any rebel interlocutors will have the power to control the increasingly ruthless fighters on the ground.
AFP
