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Published on July 31, 2007

 A .32mm handgun and six bullets, as well as two pairs of binoculars were found after five hours of searching more than 100 households.

Authorities detained Doramae Masae, Mamah Waecheleh and Usman Asah, all of whom were suspected of being part of the insurgency in the deep South. The three tried to flee on foot into a nearby wooded area but authorities were able to track them down, police said.

The raid came one day after similar offensives in Yi-ngor amd Bacho districts where 30 suspected insurgents, including five key figures, were arrested as hundreds of troops swooped in on the community. Army spokesman Colonel Acra Tiproch said the raids came after tip-offs from residents that militants were hiding in their villages. Authorities have detained more than 180 suspects after two months of raids in the region.

However, local residents said the operation was mainly for publicity amid growing criticism that the authorities had failed to make a meaningful breakthrough.

Other officials said tensions and historical mistrust between the Malay-speaking community and the Thai state remain high and the success of the raids is no victory.

Meanwhile, in Narathi-wat's Muang district, Suradej Sama-ae, 45, a resident of Tambon Bangpor who had contested a local Tambon Administrative Organisation election but failed to win in the poll, was seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire at him. Police said two

gunmen on a motorbike approached Suradej from behind and shot him while he was riding his motorbike near his residence. He survived the attack but is in a critical condition.

At Tamob Sungai Padi in the same district, Wae-duroh Der-leh, 34, a school janitor, was shot dead by gunmen using shotguns and 11mm pistols.

Police said his body was riddled with bullets - eight rounds to the chest, six to the back and three to his arms.

In nearby Yala, police detained Samae Awae, 25, a suspect in connection with the murder of a school principle and a teacher in Ban Bado district last December.

Chamnong Shupatpong, director of Ban Bado School, and schoolteacher Manoon Sornkaew were gunned down and their bodies burned about a kilometre from the school.