Bangkok: Eight soldiers were killed Monday when separatist rebels ambushed their vehicle in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, in the deadliest attack in more than a year, the army spokesman said.

The soldiers were ambushed around 9:40 am (0240 GMT) in Narathiwat, one of three provinces along the Malaysian border wracked by four years of separatist violence, spokesman Acar Tiproch told AFP.

"The eight soldiers were killed after they escorted a group of teachers to school," he said. Armed soldiers escort teachers to and from school every day in Thailand's south. They are often targeted by militants, who view teachers as symbols of Buddhist Thailand's domination of this Muslim and ethnic Malay region.

The attack was the single deadliest incident in the region since June 2006,when seven soldiers were killed in a similar ambush of a security team protecting teachers.

Army officials were still gathering more details on the ambush, Acar said. The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of animosity toward the state.

More than 2,800 people have been killed since the rebellion began in January 2004,with killings growing more frequent and brutal.

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's heavy-handed tactics were widely blamed for exacerbating the unrest in Yala, Pattani nd Narathiwat provinces, but he was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

The generals and their interim premier Surayud Chulanont vowed to quell the insurgency with olive branches for rebels, an apology for past abuses, reform of Islamic schools and tougher security.

Instead, they watched as killings grew more frequent and brutal, with both Buddhists and Muslims targeted every day.
Source : PTI