PATTANI, Thailand — Police gunned down machete-wielding militants who stormed security outposts in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south yesterday, killing at least 112 people in one of the bloodiest days in the modern history of the Southeast Asian kingdom.
The attackers were mostly teenagers — some wearing red headbands — intent on stealing guns. They were poorly armed and apparently unaware that police had been tipped off in advance and were lying in wait for them before dawn. Only five security personnel were killed, compared with the deaths of 107 militants.
In Bangkok, a somber but resolute Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the shootings would help halt a simmering decades-old separatist struggle which he said had been reignited with money from drug traffickers and corrupt politicians — and not international terrorists.
“It will be hard for them to do these kinds of bad things again,” said Thaksin, who promised to round up those who masterminded the attacks. The eight hours of mayhem ended when police fired tear gas and rocket propelled grenades into a mosque, killing 30 militants who, witnesses said, had been sheltering inside after running away from an earlier battle.
Television news reports showed the bodies of suspected fighters lying in pools of blood, some of them in front of police stations clasping machetes.
No group claimed responsibility for the highly coordinated assault by possibly hundreds of young militants, although past violence has been blamed on separatists seeking to carve a Muslim homeland in the south of this predominantly Buddhist country.
“Whoever these people were, they have shown ... that they are willing to die, simply to fight against Buddhist officials or central government authorities. This is very dangerous,” said Sunai Phasuk, a Bangkok political analyst.
“They fought with knives and swords, fully understanding that the police will be ready and waiting for them with M-16 rifles ... they refused to back off.”
Army chief Gen. Chaiyasith Shinawatra told reporters 17 insurgents were arrested. He said three policemen and two soldiers were killed and 15 policemen wounded.
The extent of yesterday’s bloodshed rivals that of pro-democracy uprisings crushed by the military in 1973, 1976 and 1991 — respectively leaving 71, 41 and 40 dead.
