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Published on October 4, 2007

Suspected insurgents shot dead a naval commander yesterday as he drove to work in Pattani's Tung Yang Daeng district.

Thawee Kuernoi, 58, a senior officer at Mobile Development Unit 44, took three bullets to the head at close range, police said.

Meanwhile, Yala's Vice Governor Grisada Boonrach said it was unlikely insurgents in the deep South wanted to use video footage as part of their strategy to spread fear.

He said footage of men beheading a victim came from an incident earlier this year. Pictures showing a masked insurgent in a black military uniform holding up the head of a victim surfaced in newspapers this week.

Grisada said the footage had been taken with a mobile phone belonging to an insurgent who fled after a fierce gunfight with authorities in Banang Sata district.

He said the gunfight between a group of insurgents and security forces lasted several minutes and resulted in the death of a police captain.

"I seriously doubt that the insurgents were trying to release this video. My recollection of the gunfight was that it ended with the insurgents fleeing the scene after several minutes," Grisada said.

"The video clip of the beheading was taken on an insurgent's mobile phone that was found in a backpack left behind when he fled."

Grisada said the beheading had taken place in April so there was no reason for the insurgents to sit on it for so long if they planned to release it. He said there had been no beheadings in Yala over the past four months and only one roadside bombing in five months.

But he said it was too early to declare victory and stressed that the number of attacks should not be the sole benchmark to measure the level of problems in the region.

The Nation