In Yala's Raman district, village headman Da-oh Kadasae, 36, was found dead on a roadside, his body riddled with bullets.

Police said Da-oh was riding his motorbike home after dropping his son off at a school when two gunmen approached him and opened fire before speeding away.

Meanwhile, four soldiers were providing security to teachers in Rangae district of Narathiwat when a bomb hidden under a roadside food stall exploded. One soldier was wounded. Police said the device was believed to be triggered by a mobile phone.

Also in the same province, a Muslim religious teacher, 53, was killed in a drive-by shooting as he rode a motorcycle with his nine-year-old nephew late on Tuesday. The boy was also wounded.

Around the same time in neighbouring Pattani, at least two suspected Muslim insurgents set rubber tubes ablaze along a two kilometre strip. Each tubes is 10 metres long and normally used for irrigation purposes.

More than 1,700 people have been killed since the violence re-emerged in the far south in early 2004.