PATTANI, Thailand: Police say suspected militants have killed five and injured one soldier in a roadside attack in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south.
Police Maj. Torphan Pusanthia said the insurgents detonated a car bomb on a road in Raman district in Yala province, as the truck carrying six soldiers passed by early Sunday.
Torphan said the militants then opened fire on the soldiers and killed five of them. He said they took away the dead soldiers' rifles. One wounded soldier was rushed to the hospital.
The six soldiers were on their way to guard a group of local farmers on their way to work.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004.