April 28, 2004

Scores killed in Thai gun battles

Security forces have killed at least 100 suspected Islamic militants in a spate of gun battles in south Thailand.

At least 30 died in a raid on a mosque where they were taking refuge from clashes with the army, officials said.

Others died during scuffles near police bases, which the attackers stormed in a series of co-ordinated attacks.

Thailand's prime minister has blamed local gangs, but many officials fear international militant groups may be behind the attacks.

The BBC correspondent in Bangkok, Kylie Morris, says the fighting is a serious escalation of the violence that began in early January with a raid on a military arsenal.

In the intervening months, more than 100 people have been killed in almost daily small-scale attacks.

Wednesday's violence took place in the three Muslim-dominated provinces of Thailand - Yala, Pattani and Songkhla.
[...]
Prime Minister Thaksin said the toll among security forces was low because the attackers had been armed only with machetes and a few guns.

But he said the fact many were riding brand-new motorcycles suggested they were receiving financial support from influential figures in the area.

"Local politicians are involved," he said, adding that the attacks were due to "organised crime mixed with politics".
[...]
Some analysts have voiced concerns that the attackers could have links to more established international militant groups.

One of the men killed in Wednesday's violence was found to be wearing a shirt with JI emblazoned on the back - a possible reference to Jemaah Islamiah, the group blamed for terrorist attacks across South East Asia, including the Bali bombings.

The alienation felt by Thailand's Muslim minority has been the source of a decades-old separatist struggle, which decreased in intensity after an amnesty in the late 1980s but resurfaced again earlier this year.

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, with its 4% Muslim population concentrated in the troubled southern provinces - Pattani, Yala, Songkhla and Narathiwat.

I must not read as much as I thought, because I didn't know there were any Muslims in Thailand until a few months ago!
Now, I'm told that they make up 4% of the population there and almost 100% of the trouble.
It's clear that the Islamists have been busy, busy busy with all those Saudi petromillions funding the jihad through the placement of mosques, radical clerics and madrassas.
The West has a lot of work to do, but we won't get to Thailand for a long while, so they're on their own for the time being.
Isn't is sad, though, that the murder and destruction look and sound the same whether it be Iraq, Thailand or the "Palestinian" Intifada?