YALA, Thailand (Reuters) - Suspected separatist rebels killed three soldiers and four policemen in two powerful bombings in southern Thailand on Saturday as violence intensified in the restive region bordering Malaysia.
The troops were killed instantly and two were seriously wounded when a remotely detonated bomb exploded under their vehicle in Yala province, police said.
About 40 minutes later, in neighbouring Pattani province, another device buried under a tree was triggered before a soccer game between police and villagers.
The blast killed four policemen and wounded at least seven others, including civilians, who were all playing in the match.
The attacks came amid a spike in the volume and severity of attacks in the rubber-rich border area, a region dominated by ethnic Malay Muslims who have long complained of being treated like second-class citizens by the mainly Buddhist Thai state.
It came after the four Muslim villagers were killed and at least 15 others wounded when unknown gunmen in camouflage clothes opened fire on a busy tea shop in Yala on Tuesday.
The attack angered many local people who suspected soldiers were responsible, a charge the army and government have dismissed as insurgent propaganda.
More than 4,500 people have been killed in violence since January 2004 in the once independent Muslim region encompassing Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, which were annexed by Thailand, then Siam, in 1909.
The authorities blame most of the deaths on separatist insurgents but local people and rights groups accuse security forces and vigilantes of carrying out extra-judicial killings.
The government and military have sought to tackle the unrest with development projects and public relations campaigns to try to undermine support for the shadowy rebels but the measures have made little progress and deep distrust exists between the army and local people.
(Reporting by Surapan Boonthanom; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)
