7 soldiers dead in bomb blast in troubled Thai south

Bangkok, June 15: A roadside bomb blast killed seven soldiers this morning in Thailand's southern Yala province reeling under an insurgency for the past three and a half years.

The troops were on their way to provide security to government schools in the province which have been targeted by suspected Islamic militants demanding a separate homeland in Thailand's Muslim-majority and ethnically distinct border region.

More than 2,200 people have been killed in violence unleashed by insurgents in the three southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani since 2004.

UNI