BANGKOK: Assailants killed five soldiers in a shooting and bomb attack at a checkpoint in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south, as the government warned on Thursday of an uptick in violence in the region.

Six civilians were also wounded in the Wednesday evening attack in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency, local officials said.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Thursday condemned what he called a “brazen act of terrorism” that he said posed “a serious threat to national security”, adding that it was an “obstacle to peace efforts” in the region.

CCTV images broadcast by local media show six suspects dressed in black pulling up in a pickup truck, followed by a volley of gunfire. Two other suspects on a motorbike were also filmed shooting.

Five members of Task Force Ranger Regiment 45 “were killed when assailants opened fire and threw pipe bombs at the Bukeh Sami checkpoint”, the army said in a statement on Wednesday.

The public relations department of Narathiwat province said six civilians were hurt, adding that no group had claimed responsibility and no arrests have been made.

Narathiwat Governor Boonchuay Homyamyen visited the injured in hospital on Thursday, including a 10-year-old boy who suffered a leg wound, the province said.

In another attack in Narathiwat province on Tuesday night, the army said an explosive device planted in a car was detonated in front of a local police station, causing minor injuries to police officers and property damage.

A low-level conflict has simmered in the southernmost provinces of Buddhist-majority Thailand since 2004, killing more than 7,000 people, as rebels in the Muslim-majority region battle for greater autonomy.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2026