“It was the third decapitation in the insurgency-hit far south in three days after militants beheaded two soldiers on Friday.”
“Couple beheaded in Thai south,” from Agence France-Presse, February 22:
YALA – A married couple were shot dead by separatist rebels in Thailand’s far south on Sunday, who then beheaded the husband and left his corpse in a rubber plantation, police said.
The Thai man and wife, both in their late 30s, were on their way to tap rubber in Yala province at dawn on Sunday when they were ambushed by the militants.
When security forces arrived to investigate, insurgents used a mobile phone signal to detonate explosives at the scene, injuring one policeman, officers in the province said.
It was the third decapitation in the insurgency-hit far south in three days after militants beheaded two soldiers on Friday.
“Insurgency-hit”: That’s a step up from the standard “restive.”
More than 3,500 people have been killed since separatist unrest erupted five years ago in the Muslim-majority south of Thailand. Tensions have simmered since Thailand annexed the mainly Malay sultanate in 1902.
Attacks have become increasingly brutal as the insurgency drags on, with corpses sometimes mutilated or burnt and left in public areas.