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YALA (Thailand) - SUSPECTED separatist militants killed four civilians in Thailand's troubled Yala province, hours after twin bomb blasts left one killed and wounded 70, police said on Wednesday.
Police said gunmen broke into two homes late on Tuesday, killing a 16-year-old boy and a 42-year-old man in separate attacks around 9.00 pm.
Later, the charred remains of an unidentified man were found in a burnt-out pick-up truck on a roadside.
A school janitor was also shot dead Wednesday morning in a drive-by shooting as he rode his motorcycle to work at 8.00 am in Yala's provincial town.
In nearby Narathiwat province, an elementary school was reported to have been burnt down in an arson attack overnight.
The violence comes hours after two bombs ripped through a market and tea shop near a local government office in Yala just before midday on Tuesday.
One woman was killed and dozens of people were wounded in what police said was one of the biggest assaults on civilians since the Muslim-majority south's separatist rebellion flared in early 2004.
The blasts came a week after Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat visited the region and told reporters the insurgency appeared to have eased.
More than 3,400 people have been killed in rebel attacks by shadowy insurgent groups operating in the region since Jan 2004, and successive governments have struggled to quell the unrest.
The three far southern provinces were an ethnic Malay sultanate until mainly Buddhist Thailand annexed the region in 1902, provoking decades of tensions. -- AFP
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