From The Nation:
Eight Soldiers were killed yesterday in a savage ambush in southernmost Narathiwat province while they were on a security patrol.
It was the deadliest attack against the military in the region since the ambush of a security team in June last year in which seven troops were killed.
Shocked officials said about 20 insurgents triggered a bomb as an Army Humvee armored patrol car (APC) carrying eight soldier drove through Ban Dusongyoh Chanae disctrict…
The Humvee was overturned in the explosion and the insurgents who had been hiding in the jungle along the roadside, emerged and fired into the vehicle…
One of the slain soldiers had been decapitated… They decapitated the commanding officer in the group and left the others with gaping stab wounds in their necks. Police said the wounded soldiers who surivived the blast were stabbed and shot to make sure they were dead… The militants took eight M-16 rifles, one M-60 machine gun and one 11mm pistol belong(sic) to the unit.
Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said the attack was typical of insurgent violence in the region. “It’s not an indication that suggests a worsening situation in the region, but we still need to be more careful,” he said.
This is just blatant incompetency on the part of the Thai army, and typical statements of denial and lack of accountability by the Prime Minister. An entire patrol is wiped out, their CO is beheaded, their equipment is looted like it’s a shopping mall, and all the while the PM is saying this is typical and not worsening??
This is by far the most brutal attack on the military to date and also shows that the insurgents have a high level of organization to plan and execute a textbook ambush. I also call the military incompetent because their entire patrol was wiped out. This shows a fundamental flaw in their deployment of soldiers on patrol and how ill equipped their tactics are in fighting the insurgents. It also raises questions of the training our soldiers are receiving and just how combat ready they really are.
When the insurgents are more well organized than the military, then it’s just a hopeless cause; we are losing the fight in the south.
