Separatists kill ten in southern Thailand

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Ten people have been killed by suspected separatist militants in Thailand's deep south in the past two days around the fifth anniversary of a bloody government raid on a Muslim mosque, security officials said on Tuesday.

Four of the 10 victims were members of a Muslim family whose home in Yala province was attacked by heavily armed gunmen Monday night, army colonel Prinya Chaidilok said.

Another two Muslims were shot dead while they were preparing to enter a mosque for prayers about 100 metres from the family's home, he said.

On April 28, 2004, troops and police killed 106 Muslim militants armed with machetes and guns who launched coordinated early-morning raids on more than a dozen security posts. Among the dead were 32 militants killed during a three-hour shoot-out at Pattani's historic Krue Se mosque.

Over 3,000 people have been killed in three southern provinces since 2004.

Early Tuesday, a Livestock Department official in Pattani was ambushed and killed while he was riding a motorbike, Prinya said.

Militant Muslim groups have waged a largely low-level campaign for autonomy for the region, including Narathiwat province, annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

(Reporting by Surapan Boonthanom; Writing by Vithoon Amorn; Editing by Alan Raybould)