Tip Sent 108 Thai Rebels to Deaths

PATTANI, Thailand —  After battling authorities for months, the Islamic militants needed guns, so they planned a daring raid. Armed mainly with machetes, they would launch simultaneous attacks on police stations across southern Thailand, killing as many officers as they could.

Unknown to the extremists, however, someone in their group had tipped off the police. When the rebels attacked 12 police stations at dawn Wednesday, police and soldiers were lying in wait and gunned them down. By the end of the day, 108 fighters were dead, most of them teenagers.

Thai security forces, which recently suffered dozens of casualties at the hands of the extremists, did not hold back. When 30 of the fighters took refuge in a mosque, the troops fired tear gas, bullets and grenades into the building, killing every rebel inside.

The militants’ death toll made Wednesday one of the bloodiest days in modern Thai history. It also highlighted the extent of a growing rebellion in the south by Muslims who believe that they are mistreated by the nation’s Buddhist majority.

Seventeen militants were arrested during the day’s fighting, which also left three police officers and two soldiers dead.

Authorities defended their response to the rebel assault. “They came to attack, so the police and soldiers just defended themselves,” said Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary Siwa Saengmanee.

Some now worry that the rebel death toll may increase hatred of the government among Thailand’s Muslims, who live mainly in the south and make up about 5% of the population.

But Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters in Bangkok, the capital, that the fighters’ deaths would help bring an end to a rebellion that had festered for decades in the southern provinces.

Under Thaksin, Thailand has played down the growing rebellion and the presence of international terrorists -- in part to avoid scaring off tourists and investors. But now, it will be difficult for this Southeast Asian nation to escape comparisons with two other countries in the region, Indonesia and the Philippines, where Muslim fighters have engaged in bloody clashes with Christians or government forces.

For years, Thailand has been a way station for terrorists connected with the Al Qaeda network and its regional affiliate, Jemaah Islamiah, authorities say. They say at least two initial meetings to plan the October 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, were held in Thailand. Last year, Hambali, allegedly a top figure in Al Qaeda, was arrested in central Thailand. Authorities also broke up what they said was a plot by Muslims in southern Thailand to bomb popular tourist destinations in the country.

It is unclear whether Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah have forged links with the rebel movement in southern Thailand, but authorities believe that some extremists from the region may have received training in Afghanistan or Indonesia.

Southern Thailand, particularly the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Songkhla, has been volatile for years. The government had made some concessions to the Islamic community there and quelled the rebel movement a decade ago. This year it became clear that the extremists had regrouped.

On Jan. 4, rebels raided an army barracks, killing four soldiers, and set 20 schools on fire. In March, they torched dozens of government buildings in coordinated attacks. More than 60 police and public officials have been killed this year. Also among the rebels’ victims were Buddhist monks, who were hacked to death in the street.

In recent weeks, the government has deployed heavily armed troops to patrol the region and imposed martial law in some areas. A wave of abductions has silenced government critics such as Somchai Neelahphajit. The well-known Muslim human rights lawyer, who had alleged that police tortured terrorist suspects he represented, has not been seen for six weeks.

Some fear that the government’s heavy-handed approach is backfiring and fueling the growth of the extremist movement. The rebels may also be moved to violence by Thailand’s decision to send 450 troops to Iraq in support of the U.S.-led occupation.

Not much is known about the rebels, but it is clear they are organized and highly motivated.

At least 250 fighters were involved in Wednesday’s raids, which took place in the three southernmost provinces, authorities said. The fighters were divided into groups of at least 20 men, with two or more leaders for each unit. Some of the combatants had automatic rifles, perhaps obtained in previous raids. But most were armed only with machetes.

The government learned Monday about the planned assault and mobilized its forces to lay a trap for the rebels.

“Those attackers were well trained,” Defense Minister Chettha Thanajaro said in a television interview. “The police and army didn’t do anything more than they should have done. They were just protecting themselves. If they hadn’t, they would have suffered a lot of damage.”