Soldier, teachers and villager shot dead in deep South

Gunmen riding pillion on motorbike fired three rounds at close range, killing Weera Muanchan, 54, director of Ban Mahae elementary school in Yala's Raman district, at the crime scene.

In Pattani's Yaring district, gunmen killed a school teacher, Rewat Waewsanga, 38, shortly after midnight Wednesday as he was riding his motorbike home.

In a separate incident that took place about the same time as Rawat's killing, police said two gunmen riding pillion on a motorbike followed army Private Usman Dorwae, 25, from behind and commenced fire at close range, killing him instantly.

Usman was a solider attached to the Third Battalion of the Sirindhorn military base in Yala province. 

Similar type of attack was carried out against Worrana Sisuan, 27, who was found laying in a pool of blood next to motorbike on the side of the road in Narathiwat's Tambon Koksatoe.

A letter, written in Thai, was left next to the victims' body. It said: "You kill Malays, I will kill Thai".

Police blamed Malay Muslim militants for the killings.

On Tuesday, three Muslim men, including a school van driver, Ibroheng Sariteh, 32, on his way to pick up students in Yala's Yaha district, were shot dead. A separate shooting incident in the same district saw Rosae Salae, 46, shot dead at close range by a gunman coming from behind on a motorbike.

The same day also saw a roadside bomb injuring five soldiers who were part of security details for local schoolteachers in Pattani's Sai Buri district.

In other attacks, a local government official was killed in Pattani, while the body of a dead Muslim soldier was found along a roadside. Police said the soldier had been shot dead and his corpse dumped on the street.

More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest resurfaced in late 2001 and spiked up sharply in 2004 in the Malayspeaking South.

No groups have claimed responsibility for the violence. Authorities blamed most, if not all, of the violence on the separatists.