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Tuwaedaniya Meringing / AFP - Getty Images
Thai police stand guard after a suspected insurgent attack at a military base in southern Thailand on Wednesday. Scores of heavily armed gunmen stormed the base in a major assault that left 16 militants dead.
BANGKOK -- A pre-dawn raid on a Thai military base ended with 16 militant Muslim insurgents killed on Wednesday in the deadliest violence in the country's south in nine years, marking a dangerous escalation in one of Asia's least-known conflicts.
Acting on a tip-off, marines lit flares and opened fire as up to 60 insurgents wearing military fatigues approached the base at about 1 a.m. local time in Narathiwat province on the Malaysian border, Internal Security Operations Command spokesman Pramote Phromin said. No Thai military members were hurt.
Violence is common in Thailand's south, but the scale of the attack and targeting of a marine base illustrate the difficulty Buddhist-majority Thailand faces in preventing the low-intensity Muslim insurgency from turning into a more dangerous conflict.
Surapan Boonthanom / Reuters
Thai security personnel investigate around bodies of insurgents at the site of an attack on a military base in the troubled southern province of Narathiwat on Wednesday.
Although there is no indication of the fighting spreading beyond the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, just a few hours' drive from some of Thailand's most popular tourist beaches, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra appears powerless to quell the almost daily gunfights and bomb attacks.
"It was only going to be a matter of time before this type of incident happened," said Anthony Davis, a Thailand-based analyst at security consulting firm IHS-Jane's.
"The insurgents have been moving towards larger attacks on military bases since 2011. At the same time, there has been more proactive security intelligence work."
Experts say the insurgency is becoming better organized. Wednesday's death toll was the biggest since security forces stormed a mosque, known as the Krue Se mosque, in 2004, killing 32 Muslims in a raid that intensified the insurgency.
Since then, more than 5,300 people have been killed in the three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, where insurgents are seeking greater autonomy.
About 94 percent of the region's 1.7 million people are Muslim, the main religion in neighboring Malaysia and in nearby Indonesia, and about 80 percent of them speak a Malay dialect as a first language, according to a 2010 survey by the Asia Foundation.
In recent weeks, attacks have appeared bolder. Five soldiers were killed by suspected insurgents on Sunday. That followed a spate of attacks on civilians, including one this month in which four fruit traders from outside the region were found shot dead with their hands and legs bound.
The government is considering imposing a curfew in parts of the south, where the military already has wide-ranging powers of search and arrest under an emergency decree.
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Car crash politics: Laws don't touch rich in Thailand
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Maybe it's time to just round all of the Muslims up, no matter what non-arab country they are living in and move them back to a Muslim/Arab country. And make sure they do not leave there. They are becoming vermin that keep multiplying.
The rest of the world does not need their terror, nor their control of other people and their lands. Keep going and sooner or later, the rest of the world will rise up and take care of the Arab terrorist problem. And the innocent Arabs (if there is such) won't like the results of what happens.
Nobody can help the FACT that your Muhammad was a drunk and a womanizer. He was just another lazy jerkwad who convince a bunch of low informed idiots he was a messenger from God. He should have been horsewhipped for those lies. It's not too late to whip the mullars who continue to preach his hate. When will you Arabs start doing that?
You are going hard early huh?....lol
Rightly said! It is the reality.
"Violence is common in Thailand's south, but the scale of the attack and targeting of a marine base illustrate the difficulty Buddhist-majority Thailand faces in preventing the low-intensity Muslim insurgency from turning into a more dangerous conflict."
It starts as a low-intensity Muslim insurgency and slowly enters into dangerous conflict.
It starts with Dearborn, Michigan and ends up more seriously!
If you have a mosque in a place, then problem starts.
If there is one mosque in a street then it stealing, looting, raping, kidnapping, rioting and killing all over!
Not all Arabs are Muslim and not all Muslims are Arabs. Iran is non-Arab, but certainly Muslim. You can't use both names in a sentence and condemn them both wholesale. The problem is Muslims who believe they are called to kill everyone else, as you point out, and this belief is basic to their ideology, religion, or whatever you want to call it. They do not believe they are crazy or doing anything other than following the call of their beliefs. The sad part is you can't say anything about Muslims or you are a hater. And we will continue to feel the effects of their beliefs because they are not done with the USA.
Ironically that sounds like another religion we know of in the middle east. Say one thing about their politics, and you are labeled a hater. Never mind that it may be true, and that you arent attacking their beliefs, you are simply a hater for not following in lock step.
It kind of amazes me how much these two groups have in common, yet they continue to war with one another.
Wherever Muslims go, death, violence and destruction follow. They are like the aliens in the movie Independence Day, destroying every non-Muslim thing in their path. They are at war with Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists. Obama's immigration reform must include a clause that prohibits Muslims from emigrating to the USA. Enough is f***in' enough.
People who are enemies can not occupy the same land & live in peace. If peace is the goal, one side or the other must go. Living with enemies, driving them away, or forcibly containing them to a specific area, is the equivalent of living with a time bomb. It will be bad. You just can't know when. Kill the aggressors now, or deal with them later are the only choices. Learn from the past.
Many followers of Islamic cult are back to their seventh century desert days of telling lies, fooling, stealing, raping, kidnapping, looting, rioting on filmsy issues, killing and doing genocides when in majority.
Muslims are killing non-Muslims in many places.
Muslims are killing each other based on sects/tribes as in Syria, Turkey, Pakistan and other places.
Wallace, should we wish them off The Blueberry then?
And the religious war continues; there can be only one ending to this mess. Paint with a broad brush and bomb frequently.
"About 94 percent of the region's 1.7 million people are Muslim, the main religion in neighboring Malaysia and in nearby Indonesia, and about 80 percent of them speak a Malay dialect as a first language"
For better life they have sneaked into Thailand!
Does not it look familiar in the US, Britain, France and many European nations?
We see Muslims inventing problems in most of the non-Muslim nations and many Muslim nations.
Even in the US, we can notice these actions!
For 9/11, Pakis and Saudis were responsible.
In the US, one Muslim from Bangladesh wanted to blow up Fed Reserve. He had come for studies and was hardly twenty! As per his family: "he is pious and he wanted to study."
Many Pakis including the Hadley have been involved in Islamic inspired terror attacks and terror plans have been too many.
When Muslims form more than five percent, downhill march starts.
Muslims are inventing problems in Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines, India and other places.
When they form more than 30 percent then it is Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Lebanon (few decades back)
In Muslim majority nations, they are doing genocides of minority Islamic sects like Shiites, Sufis, Ahmedias and other minority tribes.
If Saudi Arabia and many Muslim nations do not permit non-Islamic religious places and scriptures, Muslims have no right to have their mosques, hate preaching and killer training centers, in non-Muslim nations.
If non-Muslims can’t live in peace in Muslim nations, Muslims don’t have any right to live in our nations.
Let us declare Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as terrorist nations.
Also let us change the requirements for immigration in the US and other non-Muslim nations for keeping Muslims from basket case nations out and inventing problems out of nowhere!
Those inventing problems can be kicked out by similar minor modifications.
At one time, commies were kept away by just changing immigration and stay requirements.
Jonathan-1982062,
Muslims have lived in this area for CENTURIES...
This area was annexed into Thailand a hundred years ago...
Thailand has faced secessionist movements since it annexed the independent sultanate of Patani [Note: Thailand's annexed sultanate is spelled "Patani"; the country's southern province is spelled "Pattani"] in 1902, making the area the southernmost tip of the country. A policy of forced assimilation enraged the ethnically Malay Muslims, who represent the majority in the region...
See #13 for the latest news...
AC Robertson: Very glad to see a post with some ideas of the history of the places.
Hope you remember that before the followers of Islamic cult set their feet in Indonesia and Malaysia, those regions had Hinduism.
Indonesia, which is proud of Hindu heritage, is slowly being taken back to seventh century desert days by the real criminals and culprits of Islamic extremism, oil rich Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and other Sunni Arab League nations and sheikhs.
Be rest assured that Islamic extremism is going to be wiped out just like communism.
Extremism, whether in a religion or ideology, are counter productive and they are the real enemies.
History has seen the collapse of extremist religions and ideologies.
Also mind you: we are in 21st century and not in seventh century desert days.
Changes will be faster in ICT age.
It is unfortunate that extermination is becoming the only option. There is talk of education as a tool for civilizing violent believers but then Zionists appear to be educated and still insist it is OK to kill to keep lands they claim their god gave only to them. Christians became civilized over time but it is a veneer which will pox out with every provocation or the weakest of excuses. Atheists and agnostics, caught in the middle, are nevertheless the neighbors to be desired. Their morality is based on reason and empathy, and not fear of divine punishment.
Have to agree that religion is the opium of masses.
Jonathan, I usually agree with you, but Aalborg is talking like an athiest. You are talking like a Marxist. Religion is fine, but the extremists ruin everything.
HONESTJ: Too much of anything is too bad.
That applies to religion also.
Getting hung up on a religion has been one of the root causes of problems for normal humans.
Here many followers of Islam (especially in 21st century) are guilty getting too much hung up on religion; going back to their seventh century desert days of raping, stealing, killing and doing genocides; and inventing problems.
One can't image the killings in Syria just on the basis of Islamic sects!
The Thai military, which sometimes doubles as a police force, is well trained and very good at what they do. Thailand is totally unlike the Arab world, where police sort of appear when they want to and usually sit around smoking hashish or drinking 'tea' (which is mostly Jim Beam). The Thais are very intelligent people, very protective of their country and still maintain a love of country that is unrivaled in the Middle East. Thai soldiers and police generally have a very low tolerance for terrorism and crime, and though petty criminals seem to be common, punishment is swift and severe in most cases. The US trained the Thais before and during the Vietnam 'crisis' and to this day the Thais are equal to the South Koreans in their fighting ferocity. They are good at what they do, alert, educated and patriotic, so it is best not to 'poke the bear' when it comes to the Thai military. I know. I lived there. It's a wonderful country and likely to stay that way.
these Muslim trouble makers have to make it hard for everybody again by committing violence. this religion has made a bad name for itself and continues only to get worse.
I agree how many times do you hear, "Buddhist monk blows self up in town square killing 14", you dont.
There is one way, before an all out war against the Muslims, to make them quit their terrorist BS. Several Nations would have to join together, draw up a list of every city, village, hamlet, etc, and a list of every religious site they Muslims believe in. Put the individual names of each site in one bowl, and individual names of cites, etc into another bowl.
Call a meeting of all the Arab leaders, and explain to them, "you got 60 days to stop the terrorists." If after 60 days, any terrorists attacks, one name from each bowl will be drawn randomly, and that place will be bombed to pieces. If after that a second terrorist inicident, then two from each bowl will be destroyed. A third attack, then 3 from each bowl, etc etc.
It might take a couple of bombing runs but I have a feeling those Arab leaders will get the terrorists to quit. If not, just bomb them into the dirt. It's a horrible thought, but it is, IMO, the only way to fight terrorists and win, without spending a lot of our lives and our money. Otherwise, it's going to be a long dragged out affair.
SallyAnn: Great post.
Wish some like you become leaders of the oppressed non-Muslims!
Just examine the history of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Mali.
Can any sane humans/religious people do what they are doing in those nations?
You will come to the conclusion that most Islamists have become incorrigble and huge liabilities for world peace.
Let us all oppressed unite and hit back harder than they do to put some sanity in Sunni Islamic religious Nazis first and then Shiites' nuts.
The way things are shaping up, they will happen sooner than expected.
So you want to stop...terrorists...by using the threat of mass destruction and genocide to indimidate them into submission? Do you even know what "terrorism" means?
yeahbuhwha: Do you understand what "terrorism" means?
If you understand that, you won't be making posts like you have done.
SallyAnn-4595694,
You really think that ERADICATION will work???
You need to study the world history. ie The USSR in Afghanistan, Germany and the Jews, the Crusades, etc, etc...
The only great conquest that has worked has during the establishment of the Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan had a simple plan:
1. Kill ALL the POLITICIANS and burn their government buildings to the ground...
2. Enabled his troops to establish new family ties and procure new brides...
3. If the local people objected, he salted their farm fields and poisoned their wells...
One Muslim Leader failed to follow his aggrements with Khan. Khan then diverted a river and wiped the leaders home-town off the face of the earth...
Khans empire extended from the eastern shore of China, to the UK and into North Africa. It stood for Centuries and only came apart after Khans relatives/descendants proved to be less aggressive...
BTY - The Mongol official religion was Buddhism...
These vermin must be eradicated in all parts of the world, where ever they hide and cower they must be dealt with an iron fist and nothing less!
Referring to these invaders as Muslim insurgents should be changed to death squad terrorists, for that is really what they are.Most of the world does not want anything to do with these people who are masquerading as Muslims.Every country needs to ban together and get rid of the Taliban,Al Queda and these insurgents who claim to be of the Muslim faith.They are marauding and murdering invaders.
A little background on the Thai insurgency, it has little to do with Muslim vs Buddhism or any other religion...
1. About one hundred years ago the Thai Government introduced tourism and rubber tree plantations...
2. This displaced the migrant Muslim fishermen and their temporary villages set-up during the off-season for fishing. This also displaced many rice farmers from the prime resort sites...
3. Many of these displaced people found work on the tourist resorts and the plantations...
4. During the mid 1900's extensive areas of the Thai South were made into National Parks, including off-shore areas. This restricted areas for fishing & rice growing...
5. During the 1980's commercial fishing was promoted by the Thai Government in the Gulf of Thailand. Resulting in 'Over Fishing' which DECIMATED the fishing industry in Southern Thailand and other areas...
6. The loss of fishing as an INCOME & food source, forced many into Illegal drug dealings to support the Foreign Tourist habits and feed their families...
7. Early 2000 the Thai Government started to ENFORCE their strict drug policy - Drug dealers are put to DEATH. Thousands of suspected dealers disappeared in the Thai Deep South...
8. This repression of the local people resulted in attacks on symbols of Thai authority. Schools were attacked/set ablaze, with many teachers killed and Buddhist Temples burned. The Local Buddhist also burned Muslim sites in reprisal...
9. The Thai Queen authorized the Teachers and village leaders to have access to guns. The possession of unregistered guns in Thailand = 5+years in JAIL or LIFE if it is a military style weapon...
10. While the school burnings slowed down, the Teachers were now shot on their way to school. This resulted in POLICE/Military escorts & school guards...
11. The increase of ARMED targets resulted in; 'road side bombs', armed attacks on Army Camps and bombing/fires @ local markets. One local train was blown-up as it passed over a track-bomb...
12. Due to increased use of CCTV, these are now being burned off their mounting post...
13. The latest attacks are against ANY people from outside of the Southern Areas. Tourist, Military, POLICE, business suppliers and local supporters of the Thai Authority are now targets...
14. Last month a group from Bangkok was ambushed, when they were teaching localsthe NEW 'Rice Growning' methods, to help increase their locals profits...
IMO - Until viable methods to obtain a LEGAL income is found. This 'Cycle of Violence' will not be found...
I have been living in Thailand for the last 8+years and very fewof these on-going incidents make the BKK or International Media. Thailand does not want to scare-off the Tourist Dollars...
Though in the main tourist areas these problems seldom occur. You just have to worry about the Chinese/Russian Mafia, the unpaid Hookers, under-paid Police or the daily Farang jumping-off a tall building...
BTY - Few Thais will travel into this area, unless it is to look for jobs...
Very good post.
But we have to go back further in the history!
Before the start of Islamic cult like other places, those places were quite calm. There were not that many conflicts.
AC's history makes no mention at all of imported Islamic extremism contributing and sparking more upheaval and violence. It is NOT just local conditions and history at work there.
Jonathan-1982062,
Try traveling to Angkor Wat. The conflicts between the Chinese Warriors, Kahmer Warriors and others are engraved in the stone walls of this 12th century Hindu Temple...
The western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans)...
Adam44,
The IMPORTED Muslim extremist have targeted Bangkok, the US Embassy, etc. They have bombed a few public areas and last year a few Iranian terrorist, ran through the BKK streets throwing grenades. They are usually short lived and get to spend the remainder of their life in a Thai Jail, if they are not KILLED by the Thai Police/Military...
Come and live a few years in Thailand. You will discover the REAL TRUTH, if you get away from the tourist areas and live with the Thai's...
Is the modern dirty war leaving Middle East and moving to marginal regions in the Pacific?
Obviously there is much to be done for the new world order.
Rather a pity.