Thai police look at bodies of Buddhists killed in an attack on a civilian minibus in the southern province of Yala March 14, 2007. Suspected insurgents killed eight Buddhists and wounded two people in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south on Wednesday in an unusual attack on a civilian minibus, an army spokesman said. [Photo: Reuters]

 

Suspected insurgents killed all nine passengers in a van in Thailand's southern province of Yala Wednesday morning, police said.

Police quoted the van driver, who managed to flee as saying that the van was stopped by a falling tree on a village road in Yala's Yaha district at about 9:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) while the van was taking nine passengers from Yala's Betong to Songkhla's Hat Yai district.

The driver said that when he saw the tree blocking the road he tried to make detour, but an unknown number of insurgents jumped out of roadside bushes and blocked the van.

The drive left his vehicle and ran for his life, Thai news network The Nation said.

He said the insurgents shot the heads of the nine passengers. Eight of them died at the scene and the other died at a hospital.

Among the slain passengers were two children aging nine and ten years old, police said.

Some 2,000 people have been killed since unrest broke out in January 2004 in three mainly Muslim provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. The violence was blamed on a complex web of Islamic separatists, local corruption and organized crime.