Thai police kill at least 112 militants

PATTANI, Thailand -- Police gunned down machete-wielding militants who stormed security outposts in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south yesterday, killing at least 112 people in one of the bloodiest days in the Southeast Asian kingdom.

The attackers were mostly teenagers, some wearing red headbands, intent on stealing guns. They were poorly armed and overwhelmed by police, who had been tipped off in advance and were lying in wait for them. Officials said 107 militants and five security personnel were killed.

In Bangkok, a somber but resolute Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the shootings would help halt a simmering, decades-old Islamic separatist struggle in the mainly Buddhist nation.

''It will be hard for them to do these kinds of bad things again," Thaksin said, promising to round up those who masterminded the attacks.

The eight hours of mayhem ended when police fired tear gas and rocket-propelled grenades into a 16th-century mosque, killing 32 militants who had taken shelter inside after fleeing an earlier battle.

Mangled bodies were piled inside the cramped red-brick mosque, filled with the lingering, acrid smell of tear gas.

No group claimed responsibility for the highly coordinated assault by possibly hundreds of militants, although past violence has been blamed on separatists seekinga Muslim homeland in the south.

''Whoever these people were, they have shown . . . that they are willing to die, simply to fight against Buddhist officials or central government authorities. This is very dangerous," said Sunai Phasuk, a Bangkok political analyst.

''They fought with knives and swords, fully understanding that the police will be ready and waiting for them with M-16 rifles . . . they refused to back off," he said.

General Chaiyasith Shinawatra, commander in chief of the Thai Army, said 17 insurgents were arrested. He said three policemen and two soldiers were killed and 15 policemen wounded.

The extent of yesterday's bloodshed rivals that of prodemocracy uprisings crushed by the military in 1973, 1976, and 1991 that left 71, 41, and 40 dead, according to official counts that many believe are understated.

Thanksin said the separatist struggle had been reignited with money from drug traffickers and corrupt politicians -- and not international terrorists.

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.

Lieutenant General Proong Bunphandung, police chief for the south, said some of the attackers had guns but most carried only machetes.

Security was tightened yesterday along the border with Malaysia, which has in the past denied harboring militants.