Thai Troops Sent South to Quell Muslim Unrest

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Thai Troops Sent South to Quell Muslim Unrest

PATTANI, Thailand (Reuters) - Troops fanned out across southern Thailand on Thursday to restore order after a day of carnage in which security forces shot dead 107 Muslim militants and the army said it faced thousands more insurgents.

Army chiefs ordered two extra battalions of soldiers into the three southernmost provinces as the predominantly Buddhist "Land of Smiles" digested what newspapers described as one of the bloodiest days in Thailand's modern history.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said 107 "bandits" and five soldiers and police died in the fighting, which started when gangs of black-robed young men, some wearing Islamic slogans, launched dawn attacks on around 15 army and police posts.

The reports of suicidal attackers and pictures of the bloody corpses of lightly armed men splashed across front pages have sparked concerns a Muslim separatist rebellion that rocked the region in the 1970s and 1980s has returned with a vengeance.

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