BANGKOK – Thai law enforcement and security agencies launched a large-scale manhunt Thursday following a coordinated pre-planned attack that claimed the lives of five Thai soldiers and wounded six civilians in the country’s conflict-plagued deep southern region, officials confirmed.
The assault unfolded Wednesday evening at a military security checkpoint positioned adjacent to a residential neighborhood in Narathiwat Province, one of three southernmost provinces that have faced a decades-long separatist insurgency. According to regional Internal Security Operations Command spokespeople, approximately 10 assailants carried out the strike: they opened sustained gunfire on stationed troops and hurled improvised pipe bombs before escaping the scene.
Six local civilians were caught in the crossfire and suffered injuries. Among those hurt was a 10-year-old child, who remains hospitalized for treatment but is in currently stable condition, officials said. Local property damage was extensive, footage from Thai public broadcaster Thai PBS confirmed: nearby residential homes suffered shattered windows, damaged roofs and bullet-riddled entry gates, and a civilian motorcycle parked outside one residence was completely destroyed in the blast.
Officials have released surveillance and identification photos showing the group of attackers, who were clad entirely in black clothing and head coverings while riding in the bed of a stolen black pickup truck. The vehicle was later found abandoned 13 miles from the attack site, set alight by the perpetrators to destroy potential evidence. Following the assault, the attackers stole three standard-issue AK-47 rifles, three military bulletproof vests and three personal mobile phones from the slain soldiers, security officials confirmed.
Narathiwat, along with neighboring Yala and Pattani provinces, make up Thailand’s only Muslim-majority region, in an otherwise overwhelmingly Buddhist country. Since 2004, the area has been the center of an active Muslim separatist insurgency that has killed more than 7,000 people to date. Local Muslim residents have long documented systemic grievances, reporting systemic discrimination that has left them treated as second-class citizens. Periodic separatist activity has stretched across seven decades, and heavy-handed government crackdowns on suspected insurgent cells have only amplified popular discontent in the region. While large-scale violence has declined in recent years, low-intensity attacks and clashes remain a regular occurrence.
Internal Security Operations Command Region 4, the governing body responsible for all security operations in southern Thailand, released an official statement via Facebook promising to spare no resources in tracking down those responsible. The agency vowed to “expedite the investigation and search for the perpetrators with the best efforts.”
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul publicly condemned the assault, labeling it a deliberate act of terrorism. Government spokesperson Rachada Dhnadirek confirmed the prime minister’s statement, saying the attack “clearly aimed at killing government officials, and [is] a serious threat to national security.”