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Southeast Asia

Four shot dead by security forces in Pattani

2020-08-16

Follow up to this story from yesterday.

[BankokPost] Four suspected forces of Evil were rubbed out in shootouts on Friday night and yesterday morning as security forces closed in on a fifth suspect.

The first clash followed an earlier shootout in which three soldiers were maimed while security forces were hunting for the perpetrators of a bombing that killed a ranger on Thursday.

Two more gunnies were rubbed out and weapons seized in Yarang district of Pattani on Saturday morning as coppers resumed the operation to arrest the suspects.

Earlier in the day, residents were evacuated to a safe area amid reports the suspects were heavily armed, said Maj Gen Pramote Prom-in, front man for the Region 4 Forward Command of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).

Maj Gen Kriangkrai Srirak, deputy director of the Region 4 Forward Command, travelled to Yarang district yesterday morning to monitor the situation as the shootout carried on.

Maj Gen Pramote identified the men rubbed out on Friday as Masukee Sarumor, believed to be the head of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK)

...in English "Small Patrol Units”, the 500-strong south Thailand jihadi commandos are an ultra-violent offshoot of the Salafi Barisan Revolusi Nasional-Koordinasi (BRN-C), the largest group in the south Thailand Islamist jihad. Trained in Bandung, Indonesia and retreating to safe havens in Malaysia, they’ve been causing trouble — mostly kabooms — for two decades...

turban movement, who was wanted on two arrest warrants in security-related cases; and Anwar Kolae, an operational member, who was also wanted. The identities of the two men shot yesterday are still being verified.

Benar News has more on yesterday’s story:

Thai Deep South: Suspected Insurgents Slain During Manhunt for Bombers

Two suspected holy warriors were killed and three soldiers were maimed as security officers who were hunting for the perpetrators of twin deadly bombings the day before exchanged gunfire with an gang in Thailand’s Deep South, authorities said.

The clash took place in Yarang, a district of Pattani province, a day after kabooms killed two soldiers and injured three others as security details escorted students and teachers to school for the start of the academic year in Pattani and neighboring Narathiwat province.

Maj. Gen. Pramote Prom-in, front man for the army’s regional command, said officers killed a pair of separatist rebels.

"The two men who were killed are the leaders of the operation, but we will need to confirm their identities after the autopsies," Pramote said.

Police Col. Thotsaphol Sarapruek, chief of the Ban Sarong cop shoppe in Yarang district, said officials initially believed the group was involved in Thursday’s bombings.

"[T]he group opened fired first as they tried to escape. After a shootout of more than 30 minutes, three military officers were maimed and were taken to the Yala Center Hospital, Thotsaphol said, adding that the officers searched the holy warriors’ shelter and confiscated survival items.

However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
a military officer who was not authorized to speak to news hounds told BenarNews that the suspects in Thursday’s bombings were elsewhere.

Although rebel attacks that target security escorts for schoolchildren and teachers are common in Thailand’s troubled southern border region, Thursday’s twin bombings took place as campuses opened for in-person instruction for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out here.

The chief of the Duyong cop shoppe in Pattani said the first attack occurred shortly after 8 a.m. as a dozen soldiers assigned to Company 4305 were patrolling a road leading to Pakaluesong primary school. One soldier was killed.

About 30 minutes later, a squad assigned Company 4508, in Ra-ngae, a district in Narathiwat, came under a similar attack that killed one soldier and injured three others.

"The attacks in Pattani and Narathiwat are linked with an effort to make them happen at the same time, different cells but they were set off by holy warriors who wanted to disrupt the peace," said police Lt. Gen. Ronasilp Poosara, the commander of Region 9 Police Bureau.

Since the National Revolutionary Front (BRN), the largest of the armed separatist groups in the Deep South, declared a unilateral ceasefire in early April to allow officials to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 33 attacks have occurred in the border region.

These have resulted in the deaths of at least 19 people, including five bad boys. As many as 52 people have been injured in those incidents, according to information compiled by BenarNews from police reports.

In 2004, Malay-speaking rebels in the Moslem-majority provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and four districts in Songkhla province reignited an insurgency against Thai security forces and soft targets over their demand for an independent state. More than 7,000 people have been killed since then, according to Deep South Watch, a local think-tank.

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Southeast Asia

Attackers kill former Thai insurgent leader

2019-08-10

[Bangkok Post] Abdultore Kaso, a former leader of the RKK insurgent group in Songkhla, was gunned while on his new job. He was attacked late yesterday morning by unidentified men when he got out of his pickup truck to give ice to customers in Thepha district, police said.

An initial examination found he had been shot several times by gunmen armed with a small rifle and a pistol. Investigators are determining whether the murder was the result of a personal conflict or an insurgency-related incident.

Abdultore had served as a leader of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil, or RKK, which was active in Saba Yoi district. Its members are guerillas trained to stir unrest in the Muslim-dominated provinces in the far South. He had been allegedly involved in many violent incidents, including ambushes and bombings. However, after he was arrested and the charges against him dropped, he decided to join the state program which is intended to help draw people out of the insurgency.

Three days before Abdultore was killed, key insurgent group leader Bukhori Lamso was spotted in Thepha district, according to an intelligence source. His appearance may have been related to the attack, he said.

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Southeast Asia

Thai insurgent gunned down in firefight

2018-04-13

[Bangkok Post] A top Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) insurgent was gunned down during a standoff with Thai security forces in Pattani province. The death of Sobueri Jehe was confirmed Wednesday by military spokesman Thanavee Suvannarat.

Thanavee said eight police officers were on patrol in two trucks in Yarang district when three men having a conversation on the side of the road raised their suspicion on Tuesday. He said one policeman approached the men and asked to check their identities. Two of them opened fire and ran off into a rubber plantation while the other fled on a motorbike. The patrol pursued the two who opened fire that led to a firefight which ended with three policemen wounded and both suspects dead.

Thanavee said one of the dead men was later identified as Sobueri, a leading figure in the RKK. The other dead suspect, Yusoh Jehlong, had three arrest warrants out against him.

According to Thanavee, the provincial court had approved 18 separate arrests warrants for Sobueri, who had been detained four times previously for violence in the province. He did not say why Sobueri had been freed each time.

Footage from CCTV cameras had earlier proved that Sobueri was behind the gruesome murder of Sunisa Boonyen, a teacher who was gunned down in her car on Oct 28, 2016. The attack also wounded her friend.

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Southeast Asia

Thai cop killed, five wounded in drive-by shooting

2017-04-02

[Bangkok Post] One police officer was killed and five others injured in a drive-by shooting attack Thursday morning at Rangae district police station while officers were assembled together outdoors. Four to five attackers traveling in a pickup drove slowly past the station, then opened fire on about 30 police who were standing in rows, in the middle of their daily briefing in the yard inside the gates.

Witnesses said the gunmen were dressed like construction workers. They fired assault rifles at the policemen. A policeman on duty at the gate fired back at the truck prompting the attackers to flee. They scattered spikes on the road behind them as they drove off.

From surveillance camera footage, police determined the truck was stolen in Sukhirin district prior to the attack. According to a source, an unnamed couple in a pickup were stopped by a group of people pretending to be security officials at a fake security checkpoint set up in an area between Chanae district and Sukhirin district. The two were taken by the fake security officials and locked inside a deserted house nearby, the source said. The couple later lodged a complaint with police about the theft of the pickup, police said, adding the truck was later to be the same one caught on security cameras being used by the police station attackers.

Police later raided two locations in Muang district, resulting in two suspects being taken into in custody. Security officials are continuing to check surveillance cameras and search for the other suspects.

A security source said the station attack was apparently an act of revenge against the authorities over the extra-judicial killings of Isma-ae Hama and Arseng Useng in Rueso district on Wednesday afternoon. The two were believed to be among the people behind the killing of Somchai Thongjan, an assistant village chief of Ban Si Phinyo in Rueso district and three members of his family, the source said. Somchai's wife, older sister and eight-year-old son were also killed. He confirmed the motive of Thursday's attack was retaliation for the killing of the two suspects.

The two were killed during a gun battle with a security team that broke out after the driver of a pickup truck they were traveling in refused to stop at a security checkpoint. The suspects in the truck who opened fire at them were believed to be Runda Kumpulan Kecil militants, the source said.

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Southeast Asia

Key RKK insurgent killed in southern Thailand

2016-11-01

[Bangkok Post] A key insurgent of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) southern insurgency network was gunned down in a clash with paramilitary rangers in Narathiwat Sunday. Three men have been arrested following the incident.

Rueso district police chief Rueangsak Buadaeng said Ahama Maerao was killed by rangers in a house in tambon Batong. He spoke as he led a team of authorities including forensic scientists, doctors and prosecutors to inspect the house. The inspectors found Ahama lying dead in a pool of blood under a tree behind the house with three gun shot wounds to his back, ribs and torso.

Pasit Chanlekha, head of the 46th Ranger Taskforce, said a team of rangers had tracked the RKK network down in Rueso district three days ago after receiving a tip-off from an intel source. According to the agency, the network of four to six people was hatching a plot to carry out an attack in the district.

A search found suspects hiding on the second floor of the house in Bantamang village. The suspects were on the lookout and opened fire when they saw them approach. Authorities returned fire in an exchange that lasted around 10 minutes in which Ahama was shot and killed, Col. Pasit said. Authorities arrested three men in the incident, he added.

A resident of Narathiwat, Ahama was seen as a key figure in the RKK network and was wanted by Narathiwat and Yala police. The group is thought to have some six members and carries out attacks in those two provinces. It is not kmown how many of those arrested were regular members.

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Southeast Asia

Islamist insurgent killed in Yala shootout

2016-09-19

[Bangkok Post] An RKK militant was killed in a shootout with security officials in Yala province early Saturday. Acting on intelligence that an RKK leader hid in a house, a joint team of police, soldiers and rangers surrounded a house in Raman district. The militant fired at security forces, prompting them to shoot back.

After the 10-minute exchange of gunfire ended, authorities found one man dead with several shots in the face and a pistol by his side. The man was identified as Sorbri Buenae, a core leader who operated in tambons Kor Tor Tuera, A-song and Noen Ngam.

The security official said Sorbri was a bomb maker who planted the explosives at eight banks in the provinces in 2006. Further checks found he was wanted on arrest warrants issued in 2006, 2007 and 2014 on charges of terrorism, illegal association and collaborating to murder in Muang district.

The Runda Kumpulan Kecil, meaning "small patrol units", is an Islamist insurgent group operating in Thailand's far South.

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Southeast Asia

Thai police arrest suspect in foiled bombing

2016-08-06

[The Nation] Thai security officers have arrested the man who allegedly made a car bomb that was safely defused in a gas station in Yala province on Wednesday night. Abdullateh Riang reportedly confessed to constructing the bomb and also led the officers to another two bombs that he had prepared for future attacks. His arrest followed a 3 a.m. ranger-police operation in Narathiwat's Rusoh district.

The arrest was for an incident on Wednesday when two men wearing facemasks and abayas, which are usually worn by women, drove a truck into a gas station in Raman at on Wednesday evening. The two men asked for a full tank of gas but then ran out of the station and fled on a motorcycle, causing staff to call police about their suspicion of a car bomb. A bomb squad found and defused a makeshift bomb in the truck's back seat.

A security source said authorities believed that militant leader Masukareunor Yakumor of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil insurgent group was behind the bomb attempt. Masukareunor is a weapons and explosives expert linked to several violent incidents, including an attack on a Narathiwat military outpost in January 2011. The attack resulted in the deaths of four soldiers and militants made off with 60 weapons.

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Southeast Asia

Two militants killed in Narathiwat shootout

2016-07-03

[Bangkok Post] Two militants were killed and two soldiers injured in an exchange of gunfire at a house in Narathiwat province on Saturday morning. A combined security team surrounded the house in Rueso district after an investigation revealed that it was a suspected hideout of key members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) separatist group.

Islamic religious leaders were called in to try to persuade the men inside the house to and surrender. However, the three or four men refused and opened fire instead.The officers returned fire. The exchange of gunfire lasted for more than five minutes before the men jumped from a window and back door to escape.

The officers fired at the men as they fled. Two were gunned down while the others managed to escape. Two soldiers were also injured. The dead suspects were later identified as Abdul-arsae Shika and another man believed to be Arlee Sulong. The bodies of the two men were sent to the hospital for examination before being handed over to their relatives for religious rites.

In another incident on Saturday, two soldiers were slightly injured when a roadside bomb was detonated in Yi-ngo district. The bomb went off as two patrol vehicles carrying 15 soldiers were passing through Kadeng village. Two soldiers in the second vehicle recieved minor injuries.

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Southeast Asia

Four Thai soldiers injured in bomb blast

2015-09-07

[The Nation] Four soldiers were injured when their pickup truck was caught in a bomb explosion in Pattani province. The troops had been returning to their base in Kapho district when their pickup was hurled 50 meters by the blast. The bomb had been planted on a motorcycle and sidecar that had been stolen two years ago.

One source said authorities think the attack may have been the work of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK).

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Southeast Asia

Thai border police attacked, three militants nabbed

2015-01-29

[The Nation] Three Thai border policemen were injured by a roadside bomb in Yala province yesterday, hours after a civilian was shot and injured. The three officers were on patrol aboard two motorcycles when they were hit by the blast. Authorities believe the attacks were committed by militants.

Police later said that a civilian was shot on Monday night near the site of the bomb. So it seems likely that militants wanted to draw police out to the scene and then attack them with the roadside bomb.

In Narathiwat, two gunmen on a motorcycle fired on Task Force 32 headquarters on Monday evening before fleeing after soldiers returned fire. Task Force 32 has often been targeted since its men killed 13 militants in a well-planned ambush last year. Militants also fired on a security outpost in Yi Ngor district on Monday evening.

Back in Yala, security officials arrested three men, top suspects reportedly trained by foreign terror group Runda Kumpulan Kecil and wanted on nine arrest warrants between them. The men have been identified as Matorhe Sile, Saudi Ding-u-seng and Mahama Mamidong.

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Southeast Asia

Three militants killed in Pattani clash

2015-01-10

[The Nation] A clash between Thai security forces and militants in Pattani's Ma Yor district resulted in three deaths - including that of suspected Runda Kumpulan Kecil commander Maruding Tahae.

He was sought on nine charges including an attack in Ma Yor last July in which four soldiers were killed. The two other men killed were also militants, and were identified as Patah Lateh and Mahamasabri Dolloh. Two more militants, Abdulloh Salae and Sofri Jehha, were arrested.

A 100-man team from a police task force unit and an army ranger division rushed to the area early yesterday after a tip-off about militants there. The battle that broke out lasted from 9am until 1pm.

In related news, a national security source recently revealed that Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) under the leadership of Gusturi Mahkota would arrange a meeting of "people who think differently from the Thai State" in Hamburg, Germany on January 24. Gusturi sent invitations to PULO members and those of other militant groups including the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, the Barisan Islam Pembebasan Patani and the Gerakan Mujahidin Patani.

The "Unity Talk" - celebrating PULO's 47th anniversary - also aims to unite all groups, including two PULO factions known as the "Patani Liberation Army" led by Samsuding Khan and the "old PULO" group led by Kamae Usoh, in making demands during the ongoing Malaysia-facilitated peace talks.

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Southeast Asia

Thai terrorist killed in gun battle

2015-01-01

[Bangkok Post] Thai troops clashed with a group of well-armed insurgents thought to have plans to sabotage the New Year celebration at the foot of Mohtae mountain in Rangae district on Wednesday morning, and killed one of them. The 24-man team of rangers and special forces soldiers were tracking Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) militants when they found their camp.

The New Year's eve clash occurred after a tip that a group of RKK rebels had set up a temporary base on the mountain and were preparing to launch attacks during the New Year period. The approaching soldiers were seen by an militant lookout on higher ground, who alerted the camp. The two sides exchanged fire for about 20 minutes before the militants fled.

Troops who searched the camp found the body of a man identified as Ardua Nanmasae, who was wanted for the firearms robbery at a military camp on Jan 19, 2011. He had died from multiple bullet wounds.

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