NARATHIWAT: Two suspected insurgents were killed and two soldiers wounded in an exchange of gunfire at a house in Rueso district on Saturday.
A combined team of rangers, police and local officials surrounded the house in tambon Lalor at about 11.15am on Saturday after an investigation revealed that it was a suspected hideout of key members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) separatist group.
Islamic religious leaders were called in to try to persuade the men inside the house to lay down their weapons and surrender. However, the men, believed to number three or four, refused and opened fire instead.This prompted the officers to return fire.
Both sides exchanged gunfire for more than five minutes before the men jumped from a window and back door to escape. The officers fired shots as they fled. Two were shot dead and the others managed to flee. Two soldiers were also wounded.
The dead suspects were later identified as Abdul-arsae Shika, 35, of Rueso district and another man believed to be Arlee Sulong. Two AK rifles were found near their bodies. Abdul-arsae was wanted on arrest warrants in three security cases.
The two wounded soldiers, Sgt Muhammad Sabeedee Bura and Sgt Kampol Wisik, were taken to Rueso Hospital.
Maj Gen Chinnawat Maendet, deputy commander of the Fourth Army and Maj Gen Ekkarat Changkaew, commander of the Narathiwat special task force, inspected the scene of the clash. Authorities also spent time explaining the incident to local residents.
The bodies of the two men were sent to Rueso Hospital for examination before being handed over to their relatives for religious rites.
In another incident on Saturday in the strife-torn province, two soldiers were slightly hurt when a roadside bomb was detonated in Yi-ngo district.
The bomb, planted near a power pole, went off as two patrol vehicles carring 15 soldies drove along Phetkasem Road through Kadeng village in tambon Taharn, said Pol Capt Poramin Mayakul, a deputy investigation officer at the Yi-ngo station. The incident was reported at about 4.30pm.
Two soldiers on board the second vehicle sustained minor injuries. They were sent to a nearby hospital.
Police said the bomb, weighing about seven kilogrammes, was detonated by a radio communication device.