11 killed, 12 wounded in Thailand mosque shootout

11 killed, 12 wounded in Thailand mosque shootout

Unidentified gunmen sprayed bullets on worshippers at a mosque in southern Thailand on Monday night killing 11 people and wounding a dozen others police said on Tuesday. The incident took place shortly before 8 pm local time when the people were performing evening prayers inside the mosque in Cho Ai Rong district of Narathiwat Province, police said. Four or five people are seriously injured. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajivahas sent Army Chief Anupong Paochinda to Narathiwat Province to meet with local officials and discuss about the attack. Thai media reported that Abhisit will raise the matter for discussion at a weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after a rumour spread among locals that the attack was conducted by the authorities to defame the insurgents. Narathiwat is one of Thailand's Muslim-majority provinces that have been plagued by insurgency since 2004, leaving thousands dead.   Thai army chief denies forces behind mosque attack   Thailand's army chief on Tuesday denied claims that security forces were to blame for a bloody attack on a mosque in the country's troubled Muslim-majority south that killed 11 people.   The government ordered General Anupong Paojinda to fly to the volatile region a day after masked gunmen stormed the mosque in Narathiwat province and sprayed worshippers with bullets during evening prayers.   Villagers blamed Thai forces for the attack, one of the worst incidents in a five-year insurgency in the south, but Anupong said separatist militants were responsible for the "barbaric act."   About 1,000 sombre villagers gathered near the mosque in Cho-ai-rong district today to see the scene of the attack and attend a religious ceremony for the dead, witnesses said.   Locals collected the bodies of eight of the dead, including the local imam, this morning and took them to makeshift tents near the mosque to clean them for burial. (ST-9/06)