The south of Thailand has been thrown into a security crisis after two Thai marines were blindfolded, roped together, beaten and hacked to death by a mob that accused them of being part of an undercover death squad.
Hundreds of soldiers were conducting house-to-house searches in pursuit of suspected Islam
insurgents as the cycle of violence in Thailand's Muslim majority provinces threatened to spill over into the tourist-heavy areas such as Pattaya and Phuket.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to track down the killers as Muslim rubber-tappers and labourers braced for reprisal killings.
Malaysia put security forces on alert along its northern border to prevent any spillover from renewed violence in Thailand.
Analysts said the chilling incident might be the tipping point in a separatist insurgency that has killed more than 1000 people over the past 21 months.
Hundreds of veiled women with small children blocked the road into Tanyonglimo village in Narwathiwat province and prevented the rescue of the two hostages during a 19-hour standoff that ended yesterday.
At least 500 villagers surrounded Sub-Lieutenant Vinai Nabut and Petty Officer Khamthon Thongeiat as they were pulled from an unmarked car moments after a fatal shooting at a teashop.
Four other customers were wounded in the attack.
Village headman Romoeli Tingi told reporters relatives of the teashop shooting victims did not believe the two hostages had fired the shots and had planned to let them go.
Witnesses said that while village elders left to pray in the mosque next door, three hooded militants rushed in to stab the marines, then bludgeoned them with a sledgehammer and iron staves.
Later, Romoeli complained that milling crowds of outsiders may have provoked the mob action.
- Independent
