Three people killed during a raid in Thailand's Muslim south

Yala: Two policemen and a suspected rebel were killed on Friday during a house raid in a village in Thailand's Muslim south, where nearly 3,000 people have died in four years due to separatist unrest, police said.

The two policemen, a Muslim and a Buddhist, were shot dead during a raid on the home of a suspected guerrilla in Yala.

Fifty soldiers and police then stormed the one-storey house and killed a 25-year-old Muslim man, police said.

The raid followed clashes on Wednesday between security forces and insurgents suspected of killing a 70-year-old
Buddhist shopkeeper.

Two Muslim men, one of whom was believed to be a leading member of an insurgent group and with a 500,000 baht ($16,000) bounty on his head, died in that operation, police reported.