Two security officers shot dead in Thai Muslim south.

NARATHIWAT - Two security officers have been shot dead by suspected Islamic rebels in Thailand’s restive Muslim-majority south, police said Thursday.

A 50-year-old police sergeant was killed in a parked car after a group of militants sprayed the vehicle with bullets Thursday in Pattani, one of three insurgency-torn southern provinces bordering Malaysia, they said.

In nearby Narathiwat province, a 24-year-old soldier was gunned down after insurgents stormed into his wife’s house late Wednesday, police said, adding he was killed following a 10-minute gunfight.

Police added a 35-year-old Buddhist man died early Thursday, becoming the second fatality from a bomb attack in Pattani on Monday. More than 20 people were wounded when a bomb, hidden in a motorcycle, exploded at a night market.

UPDATE at 5/3/07 9:41:45 am:

The military-installed Thai government responds to the beheadings and bombings by offering amnesty to the “insurgents.”

(BangkokPost.com, dpa) - The decision to grant an amnesty “to all persons involved in the ongoing violence” in the deep South was welcomed Wednesday by Islamic organisations.

Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Tuesday agreed to grant the amnesty, announcing his intention to visiting Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Tuesday.

The prime minister Surayud Chulanont said Wednesday the government was working on a draft bill. He assigned the Fourth Army region commander and the head of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) to study how to implement an anmesty. …

Gen Surayud said the amnesty should be offered to all people involved in southern violence - so long as they had not committed an offence under the country’s Criminal Code.

The gesture was welcomed by both Ihsanoglu and Islamic leaders in Thailand. “I think by announcing the amnesty during my visit, the government is sending a message that it’s committed to a peaceful solution,” Ihsanoglu told reporters Tuesday night.

(Hat tip: Ringo.)