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.