Four Buddhist villagers are killed and their homes are set on fire in southern Thailand. Buddhists are often the target of rebels believed to be separatists.<br /><br />Four Buddhist villagers were shot dead and their homes set ablaze in Thailand's troubled Muslim south on Sunday.<br /><br />The incident is the latest in a spree of deadly attacks blamed on separatist rebels. More than four thousand people have been killed and eight thousand wounded in six years of unrest.<br /><br />The incidents all took place on Saturday night.<br /><br />Police suspect the attacks were carried out by a group of about ten ethnic Malay militants riding in a pickup truck armed with M-16 assault rifles.<br /><br />Among the victims was an 83-year-old man shot dead before his house was burned to the ground.<br /><br />The rebels then stormed another house nearby, shooting dead a 46-year-old man and his wife before torching the building.<br /><br />A 76-year-old woman was later killed in the same district in another gun and arson attack.<br /><br />The incidents came amid a recent upsurge in violence in the once independent Muslim region, where Buddhists represent about 15 percent of the population.<br /><br />No credible group has claimed responsibility for the violence or stated goals or demands.<br /><br />A combined police and military security force of around 60 thousand has failed to make any inroads towards quelling the unrest in the region.
