Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.
Assailants killed five soldiers in a shooting and bomb attack at a checkpoint in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, as the government warned on Thursday of an uptick in violence in the region.
Six civilians were also wounded in the Wednesday evening attack in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency, local officials said.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Thursday condemned what he called a "brazen act of terrorism" that he said posed "a serious threat to national security", adding that it was an "obstacle to peace efforts" in the region.
CCTV images broadcast by local media show six suspects dressed in black pulling up in a pickup truck, followed by a volley of gunfire. Two other suspects on a motorbike were also filmed shooting.
