YALA, Thailand (AFP) — Three people were killed in separatist attacks in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, bringing the death toll from the four-year conflict to more than 3,000, police said Wednesday.
Two militants shot dead a 72-year-old Buddhist grocer at his store in Yala, one of three provinces roiled by violence along the southern border with Malaysia, police said.
The two men fled, but were stopped at a nearby military checkpoint where they were killed in a 10-minute gun fight, they added.
One of the men was identified as Sunawa Yugo, believed to be a leading militant with a 500,000-baht (16,000-dollar) bounty on his head. He was wanted on a national security arrest warrant, police added.
The latest killings brought the toll in the conflict to 3,002 dead, while thousands more have been injured in daily shootings, bombings and arsons across the region, according to police.
This southernmost corner of the kingdom was an autonomous Malay sultanate until mainly Buddhist Thailand annexed the region a century ago. Separatist violence has flared periodically, with the latest unrest beginning in January 2004.
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