THAILAND
Police kill 107 militants
Police gunned down 107 machete-wielding militants -- including 34 in a three-hour mosque shootout -- after coordinated attacks on more than a dozen security outposts April 28, in one of the bloodiest days in the modern history of the Southeast Asian kingdom.
The violence erupted before dawn 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.
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 the predominantly Buddhist country.
The Japan Times Weekly: May 8, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
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