• 
• 
• 

NARATHIWAT - Suspected Islamic rebels shot dead two men in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, including a Buddhist they beheaded, police said Wednesday.

Militants killed the two Buddhists, aged 51 and 50, in an ambush late Tuesday in Narathiwat, one of three insurgency-torn southern provinces bordering Malaysia.

They then beheaded the 50-year-old man early Wednesday, police said.

Also in Narathiwat, at least five bombs hit power transmission stations late Tuesday, but the attacks caused no power blackout and there were no reports of casualties.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the violence-torn provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani since the separatist insurgency broke out in January 2004.

Violence has escalated in the past six months despite moves by the military-backed government to bring peace to the troubled region.

Agence France-Presse