YALA (Thailand), Jan 24: Suspected insurgents have shot dead seven people in attacks across Thailand’s far south, where a bloody separatist rebellion has been raging for five years, police said on Saturday.

Four construction workers were shot dead on Saturday afternoon at a building site for a bridge in Yala, one of four southern provinces hit by the unrest.

Also in Yala province, a 46-year-old man was shot dead outside a mosque after Friday prayers. Police told reporters that he was likely targeted because militants suspected he was working as a police informant.

Elsewhere in the same province on Friday, a 65-year-old woman was shot dead outside her house and a 30-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting as he went to feed fish at a local pond.

More than 3,500 people have been killed since separatist unrest erupted five years ago in the Muslim-majority deep south. Tensions have simmered since Thailand annexed the mainly Malay sultanate in 1902.

Successive governments have vowed to tackle the unrest, but have had little impact on the almost-daily violence carried out by shadowy rebel groups who rarely claim responsibility for their attacks or make clear demands.—AFP