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1 News: Flor MacCarthy reports on the series of co-ordinated attacks by suspected Islamic militants, including a gun battle at a Pattani mosque that left 32 rebels dead
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6.1 News: Flor MacCarthy reports on the outbreak of violence in an area which has been restless for some time
A senior military official in southern Thailand has said that 107 Muslim militants, two soldiers and three policemen have been killed in fighting centring around a mosque.
The toll included 32 attackers who died inside the mosque near the town of Pattani after a shootout.
A further six attackers were injured and 17 arrested, while 15 security force members were also hurt in the clashes.
Following the raids, authorities confiscated a large number of
weapons including machine guns, pistols, hand grenades and
machetes.
The area was the scene of a Muslim separatist rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s.
