Thai troops clash with `insurgents' in southern province

Soldiers killed five suspected Muslim insurgents during a gunfight yesterday in a jungle in Thailand's restive south, an army official said.

The two sides clashed in the mountains of Narathiwat Province as a dozen paramilitary troops were conducting a morning patrol in the Rangae District, said Lieutenant Colonel Narong Suankaew, the commander in charge of the district, one of the region's most dangerous areas.

The soldiers confiscated two M-16 assault rifles and a shotgun, he said, adding that other details were not immediately known.

More than 2,000 people have been killed since 2004 in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani, where a Muslim insurgency re-emerged in early 2004 after more than two decades of relative peace.

The three provinces are the only Muslim-dominated provinces in the predominantly Buddhist country. Muslims say they are treated like second-class citizens and mistreated by soldiers.

More than 100 veiled women staged a peaceful demonstration yesterday morning in Yala Province to protest the recent arrest of Niseng Bala-asae, a suspected Muslim insurgent, police Lieutenant Montri Julanupan said.

Police suspect Niseng of involvement in the recent bombing of a gas station in Yala but villagers say he is innocent.

The protesters blocked a main road leading to Yala city, the province's commercial center, before being dispersed by female rangers -- a new initiative by security forces that is part of a wider campaign to create a softer and more friendly image.