Suspected Muslim insurgents kill 3 in southern Thailand

Bangkok: Police say suspected Muslim insurgents have shot and killed three rubber tappers n Thailand's insurgency-plagued south on Sunday.

Police Col. Pompetch Pipatpetchpoom says that at least four assailants who were hiding on the roadside opened fire on a Muslim woman and two Buddhist men at a rubber plantation.

Police says Muslim insurgents were suspected in the morning attack in Yala province's Bannang Sata district.

More than 3,300 people, both Muslims and Buddhists, have died since early 2004 as a result of the Islamic insurgency in southern Thailand.

Attacks have generally taken the form of drive-by shootings and bombings intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving the only Muslim-dominated areas in the Buddhist-majority country.