Police: Thai army rangers killed 3 boys in south
HAT YAI, Thailand (AP) — Two army volunteers confessed they shot dead three boys and wounded their parents to seek revenge for one of their families in Thailand's south, police said Monday.
The army rangers were arrested on Saturday in the southern border province of Narathiwat, one month after the deadly attack took place in the same province, Police Maj. Gen. Pattanawut Angkanawin said.
The pair, 21-year-old Maming Binmamah and 25-year-old Zakeurah Jehsae, admitted they fired rifles and a pistol into a house in Bacho district in Narathiwat province and killed three brothers, aged 6, 9, and 11, and wounded the boys' parents on Feb. 3, according to authorities.
Pattanawut said Maming was seeking revenge for his brother and his pregnant sister-in-law, who he believed were killed last August by the boys' father.
"I'm sorry for what I did, but I had to do it because I was angry. This has nothing to do with the paramilitary ranger base I'm working for," Maming told reporters at a news conference.
Pattanawut said police were seeking another accomplice and are still investigating the killings of Maming's relatives.
Narathiwat is one of the three southernmost Thai provinces, where more than 5,000 people have been killed in an Islamic insurgency since 2004.
