BANGKOK, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Separatist rebels in southern Thailand killed four soldiers and injured six others in a rare attack on a rural army base.
Up to 40 insurgents raided the base from several angles, a military spokesman said, and caught the 80 soldiers right after they had finished their evening meal.
During the gun battle that lasted half an hour, the attackers set off bombs, burned several buildings and captured more than 50 rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition. The weapons included M-16 assault rifles, Uzi submachine guns and an M60 7.62mm portable machine gun, the first ever captured by the insurgents, the spokesman said.
There were no details of insurgent casualties.
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The attack on the base in the remote province of Narathiwat appears to have caught the military off guard because it was one of the few well-executed raids on a military base and included more than a dozen insurgents.
Military reinforcements were flown in by helicopter because the rebels scattered spikes and felled trees to block the main road leading to the base.
Around 4,300 people have been killed since an increase in violence in 2004. But most of the attacks are roadside bombs, motorcycle drive-by shootings and random shootings at police stations.
"The army will have to adjust its operation and look into how so many weapons were stolen," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said. "The weakness is caused by the way soldiers are spread thin to different areas to protect the public, giving ill-intentioned people opportunities to create unrest."
Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said despite the attack on the base, the government will lift the emergency decree in the three southern border provinces. But he also said security forces will continue to hunt down the insurgents and use helicopters to scour the mountains where the militants were believed hiding.
The attack came after last week's visit by Abhisit to the restive southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and where around 60,000 Thai soldiers are stationed for security operations against separatists.
The majority of people are Muslim and speak a Malay dialect, while most of Thailand is Buddhist and ethnically different from the southern province population.
Narathiwat, around 710 miles south of Bangkok, borders Malaysia and has a population of less than 700,000. The capital, also called Narathiwat, has around 40,000 inhabitants.
Seventy-five percent of the area is jungles and mountains. Narathiwat Malays are similar in ethnicity and culture to the Malays of Kelantan, Malaysia and are mostly farmers and fishermen.
This week two security personnel were injured when a bomb hidden in a parked motorcycle went off in Narathiwat town. Security forces said the motorcycle was parked outside a teashop and the bomb was triggered as a special operations pickup truck passed by.
In August 2009, separatist gunmen opened fire at a police checkpoint, killing two officers.
