Militant attacks kill 1, wound 11 in Thai south

YALA, Thailand, May 20 (Reuters) Suspected Muslim militants shot dead a Buddhist construction worker and set his body ablaze in Thailand's troubled south and in a separate attack detonated two bombs that wounded 11 people, police today said.

The dead man was killed as he worked on a highway in Pattani, one of three southern provinces beset by three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have been killed.

Officers said the man's excavator was also set alight.

A few hours later in the nearby province of Narathiwat, two remote-controlled bombs detonated 15 minutes apart near a market, wounding seven police and defence volunteers and four civilians, police said.

Some of victims were caught as they rushed to the scene of the first blast caused when the small home-made bomb exploded.

Despite the violence and growing calls from the Buddhist majority elsewhere in Thailand for a tough crackdown Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont insists he is committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

REUTERS ABM RAI1802