Seven suspects arrested for rebel attacks in Thailand’s south

Seven suspected rebels have been arrested in Thailand’s violence-wracked south, authorities said Saturday, as a manhunt sweeps through remote villages for gunmen who killed 15 in an ambush considered the deadliest attack in the yearslong insurgency.

Thailand’s three southernmost provinces have been in the grip of a simmering 15-year conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people, the majority civilians, as Malay-Muslim militants fight for more autonomy from the Thai state.

The fighting is characterised by tit-for-tat attacks that usually target symbols of the mostly Buddhist Thai state and its security forces.

But Tuesday night’s ambush in Yala province was on two checkpoints manned by civilian defence volunteers -- villagers trained and armed by the Thai state -- which left 15 of both Buddhist and Muslim faith dead.