Heavily armed Thai soldiers guard the Krue Se mosque in Pattani province, southern Thailand (AP)
The jihad in Thailand has reached a new level of ferocity. The major media, of course, have no interest in telling you that the Muslim insurgents in Thailand are working from the same motivations as the jihadis in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Israel, and Kashmir, and Chechnya, and Nigeria, and Indonesia, and the Philippines, etc. etc. From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:
(AP) Police gunned down scores of machete-wielding militants who stormed more than a dozen security outposts Wednesday, the bloodiest day of fighting yet in Thailand's troubled Muslim-dominated south. The death toll stood at least 112.Only five security force personnel were among the dead. The rest were insurgents, mostly teenagers.
The eight hours of mayhem ended when police fired tear gas and rocket-propelled grenades into a mosque, killing 32 militants who, witnesses said, had been sheltering inside after running away from an earlier battle.
Television news reports showed the bodies of suspected Islamic fighters lying in pools of blood, some of them in front of police stations clasping machetes and wearing colored shirts and camouflage pants.
Gunfire echoed as armored personnel carriers cruised deserted village streets and commandos moved through forest. Policemen and soldiers, carrying automatic rifles, crouched as they ran across roads and ditches.
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 homeland in the Muslim-majority south of this predominantly Buddhist country.
The death count was dramatically lopsided.
Army chief Gen. Chaiyasith Shinawatra told reporters that 107 insurgent were killed and 17 were arrested. He said, three policemen and two soldiers were also killed while 15 policemen were wounded.
Soldiers and police — tipped off in advance — were waiting for the poorly armed assailants. Some had guns but most carried only machetes, said Lt. Gen. Proong Bunphandung, the chief of police for the south.
"The security officers have been patiently working with local people and gathering intelligence. We waited for the right time to achieve this success," he said.
Many parts of the region have been under martial law for months. Security was tightened Wednesday along the border with neighboring Malaysia, which has in the past denied allegations of harboring militants.
The violence erupted at 5 a.m. when the insurgents attacked more than 15 police bases, village defense posts and district offices in Yala, Pattani and Songkhla provinces in a bid to steal weapons. ...
However, Thaksin denied the attackers had connections to international terrorists.
"Most of the insurgents are youths from the southern provinces," he said. "Their acts are not linked with international terrorists."
It is likely that they didn't have ties to international terrorists — but they shared the same goals, motivations, and ideology. This is another indication that the problem of jihad terrorism is not simply a problem of Saudi Wahhabism.
I guess they were so accustomed to "ride by" hackings of defenseless victims that they did not realize that it just isn't smart to bring a knife to a gunfight.
jay
Here in the Thai press Thaskin is saying that the militants were "drug addicts" so I doubt anyone should pay much attention to his bit about them not being tied to terrorists. Keep in mind that when the "bandits" stole "100 rifles" (the number was closer to 400) he insisted the same thing; that NO terrorist were involved.
The Thai news shows showed part of the gun fight, and although the AP piece seems to go on about the "lop-sidedness" of the dead, the cops I saw on the news were surrounded and GREATLY outnumbered. In the sequence I saw someone sharted shooting at them as the mobs came in from all sides, they went to ground and started firing.
The dead I saw on the Thai news had machettes still in their hands, although I saw some footage of spend shotgun shell casings that weren't from the cops (the cops and soldiers had armalites). One fellow appeared have been riding his motorcycle, machette in hand and was shot down trying to attack a check point.
Thai's realize that this is BAD for tourism and the last few years with SARS and the Chicken Flu they have seen a big drop in the tourists visiting here. The last thing Thaskin or any Thai official is willing to say is that Terrorists are here. Even though they caught the Bali Bombing mastermind in Phuket.
Jihad is jihad, is jihad regardless of language or location on the globe. It is amazing to me that blindness to this fact is world wide. Why can't people see the big picture, notice the pattern, and take appropriate action?
"The death count was dramatically lopsided"
This quote sounds accusatory. Note to AP; IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE LOPSIDED! That is the point of combat you idiots.
Dear epq:
"Why can't people see the big picture, notice the pattern, and take appropriate action?"
I suggest you read THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH by William Shirer. It was a history of the rise of Nazi Germany written before Political Correctness made it impossible for historians
to tell it like it really was.
Some people saw the "big picture" of Nazism and called it what it was in the 1930s, only to be railed at and condemned as "war mongers" and worse by the liberal establishment of the day--just like some of us call Isalmism what it is today and get roundly condemned for our "intolerance," "bigotry," and "war mongering."
So when muslims in Indonesia are the majority, they attack the minority nonmuslims. When muslims in Thailand are the minority, they attack the majority nonmuslims. Religion of peace?
"The death count was dramatically lopsided"
In swedish national radio it was called a butchery (slakt). You got the impression that the police acted very unfairly to the poor youths.
The BBC did not disappoint. The other day Tony Cheng was supposed to be reporting on the "troubles" in southern Thailand. Not a word about the murder, over the last few months, of Buddhist monks and villagers. Cheng focused instead on a lachrymose interview with a Muslim woman whose husband had disappeared, and who could not understand what had happened to him. Vicious Thai government. Innocent Muslim villagers. Then Cheng switched from the Muslims to the tribes in the north who were being harried by the government -- which, the listener was expected to understand, meant that "just as the northern tribes are persecuted by the government unjustly, so too must be the Muslims in the south."
Today, Julian Marshall -- and he is no Judy Swallow, no Lise Doucette, no Ian Lustig -- focused on the casualties, and wondered aloud why there could not have been negotiations first. After all, the police had guns, and the poor Muslim terrorists only had ---- machetes! Not fair. Much solemn attention given to the idea that these Muslims were simply protesting against poverty and "neglect" by the north. Not a hint that there just might possibly maybe perhaps be something in the nature of Islam, its teachings, the attitudes it engendgers, that make such attacks not only predictable, but almost inevitable. They may be put down, for a time, or villagers bought off, for a time, but unless Islam itself is constrained (not doctrinally -- can't be done -- but in the ataturkian manner), Jihad will keep coming back, every generation or so.
When will the BBC be cleaned? When will Michael Grade take a look at the BBC World Service, which is a scandal, and ask to listen to, say, the last six months of coverage of Iraq, of the Arab Jihad against Israel, of the Muslim violence in northern Nigeria, southern Sudan, southern Philippines, and Kashmir, to see if, in fact, as Vladmir Bukovsky and Trevor Asserson and others assert (offering chapter and dismal verse), the BBC offers snide mockery of Britain's own army and security services, and of course mocks everything to do with the United States government, misreports on Israel and the Arabs consistently, in a manner that helps to vilify and blacken the image of the former, and to justify the latter -- Dennis Potter's "Occupying Powers" indeed. Begin at the top, begin with John Simpson, #3 at the BBC, and the head of Foreign News -- reader, google for yourself "John Simpson" and "U.S.S. Liberty" and see what you get. Take the World Service out from under any Foreign Office oversight; put in even one -- just one -- person above the likes of Judy Swallow who will not permit her chirpy viciousness, or that of her colleagues -- a few firings are long overdue. Let them sue; the record is very clear of sustained prejudice. Anthony Julius may take the case on a pro bono basis; if not he, there are many others capable, and willing.
The Lord Haw-Haws and Tokyo Roses that one finds now, not by tuning in Radio Berlin or Radio Tokyo, but the BBC itself, must be put out of their misery -- and ours.
I wish the news reports would call islamics, islamics in their news reporting instead of all the other names used to confuse people!
The western media will not allow any true reporting on muslims.
You look at this article, and you can see the slant on every media outlet across the world that these poor youth suffered. At the same time they say they were not terrorists or organized although they all showed up on new expensive motorcylces that the police say some organization paid for.
Next the muslims say they could not be true muslims because they were on drugs. So was Uday, and Saddam. Even some of the 9/11 bombers were drunk in a bar in California the week before the bombings.
So they say they were poor and did not have jobs, that gives them the right.
Then you go to Indonisia where it is a muslim majority and they kill Christians in a parade and even hack some of them to death with hachets. When the police come in they actually give the muslims cover fire to advance on the Christians.
So the moral to the story is:
If you are a Christian and you are killed. It is not news. You were infringing upon someone elses rights (you have none).
If you are a muslim and you want to kill and you are stopped from doing so because someone actually wanted to defend theirself, then you are a victim of the establishment. And if your butt was really kicked, then too much force was used.
It must be nice to right all the time, no matter what you do.
Yes Alaska, that is how I see it too. There is a double standard at work here. The prevailing wind of the world is Political Correctness and liberal thinking. They don't criticize the Muslims because their political agenda and the agenda of the Radical Muslims are the same. What I think they believe, however, is that in the end when Political Correctness wins out over the other position, they will be able to handle and control the Muslims. This, I think, is a HUGE mistake. They will be like Miss Havisham - from "Great Expectations," who taught Estella to be heartless to others and then complained one day that Estella was heartless to her. The liberal left will one day wake up to find that they have been harboring a monster who is only all to willing to eat them up. They are really just a bunch of fools.
Muslims hate liberals alot more than they hate any other category of kafirs,for liberals have no morals,they value homosexuality and they have the "anything goes" attitude ,that is in complete opposition to the muslim doctrine.
The liberals ,are delusional when they think they will be able to handle the muslims...
If muslims would seize power in any civilized country,the liberals would be the first they would start killing.
Dummies brought knives to a gun fight......
What a waste of time and lives. And for what Muslims? Can any Muslim that comes to this site explain the benefit of this maniacal behavior?
I didn't think so.
I stayed up late watching the Thai news specials on yesterday's goings on after watching the BBC's useless report.
First of all there were TEN different incidents in TEN different locations between 3 seperate areas. The troubles started at 4am and went on until 2 or 3 pm in the afternoon. The BBC made it sound as if all 100 had been needlessly killed in one place and were only armed with knives.
They were armed with knives yes, as well as shotguns, M-1 rifles, stolen armalites, gernades, one dead guy I saw had gernade launcher. The BBC didn't bother showing the badly wounded Thai cops being helped off the back of a pic up into a hospital, nor did it show the Thai Police and Army hiding behind vehicals while someone took shots at them.
My Thai friends are not impressed by how the international news is portraying their country. Especially since they have never really given much coverage to the daily killings of monks, teachers, civilians and cops alike in the south.
Why is the BBC so screwed up?
Arab News cover story today has only one mention of "Muslim". About half way through:
"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 htis predominately Buddhist country."
Editorial mentioned a hope that the Thai military wasn't indiscriminately overreacting.
To paraphrase Jerry Pournelle, "It looks like a case of evolution in action."
jay