3 children killed in Thai school attack.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Three Muslim schoolchildren were killed and seven injured in an attack by suspected insurgents at an Islamic school in restive southern Thailand, police said Sunday.

The attack occurred late Saturday evening at the Bamrungsart Pohnor school, a Muslim boarding school in Songkhla province, said police Col. Thammasak Wasaksiri. Attackers hurled explosives onto the school grounds and opened fire with assault rifles into the sleeping quarters of the school, Thammasak said.

He said police believe Muslim insurgents staged the attack and hoped to convince local residents that authorities were behind it — a ploy to win villagers over to the insurgents’ cause.

Hundreds of Muslim villagers staged a protest Sunday morning, saying they didn’t believe that Muslims had staged the attack.