Seven killed in Muslim southern Thailand

Bangkok, Apr 10: Gunmen opened fire on a pickup truck carrying Muslim mourners leaving the funeral of a village headman in violence-torn southern Thailand, killing three people, police and the army said today.

The headman, a 55-year-old Muslim, died on Monday when a bomb exploded underneath his pickup truck.

Three other people were killed in separate shootings and ambushes yesterday in the Muslim-majority region along the Malaysian border, where more than 2,000 people have died in three years of separatist unrest.

Army spokesman Acra Tiproch said a group of youths had run into the funeral procession in an apparent attempt to disrupt it, although their motives for doing so remained unclear.

''There might have been some bad guys mixed in the funeral procession,'' he said. ''We are tracking a man who opened fire and triggered fighting at the funeral.'' Muslims and Buddhists have both been targets of the violence, although in some cases Muslim villagers have accused predominantly Buddhist security forces of operating death squads to wipe out Muslim militants.

The government has denied such allegations.

Reuters