BANGKOK (Reuters) - A motorcycle bomb killed a father and daughter in front of a Thai elementary school as parents were dropping off their children on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks in the troubled south.

The bomb went off in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in predominantly Buddhist Thailand where a separatist insurgency has been raging since 2004.

The blast killed a man and his five year-old daughter, the army’s Internal Security Operations Command said. The motorcycle was parked opposite the school entrance. Eight people were wounded.

“We suspect this to be the work of people who want to destabilize the situation and cause chaos,” the deputy spokesman of the ISOC, Yuthanam Petchmuang, told Reuters.

The attack occurred less than a month after a wave of bombings in tourist towns, including Hua Hin, Phuket and Surat Thani, killed four people and injured dozens.

Police say the tourist-town bombings were linked to the southern insurgency and arrested a suspect over the weekend in connection with the attacks.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters on Tuesday that the military government, which took power in May 2014, were making security preparations ahead of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha on September 12.

More than 6,500 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in the Muslim-majority provinces Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani Province since the conflict began, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the conflict.

While the conflict has been largely confined to the three southern provinces, analysts say that the spread of violence to other provinces could affect Thailand’s tourism industry. </s> NARATHIWAT, Thailand: A four-year-old girl and her father were killed when a bomb hidden in a motorcycle was detonated outside a school in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, authorities said Tuesday.

The device, packed in the fuel tank of the parked motorcycle, struck as pupils and teachers filed into the school in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province for the start of the day.

“The two dead were father and daughter,” Noppdol Kingthong, a Tak Bai police detective, told Agence France-Presse.

The bomb was set off by radio control as the pair were near the school gate on a motorbike, he added.

A dozen other adults were wounded, according to a hospital worker who said the dead were Muslim.

Ethnic Malay insurgents in the kingdom’s so-called “Deep South” have for years targeted schools and teachers, who are viewed as symbols of Thai state power over the culturally distinct Muslim-majority region.

More than 6,500 people—the majority civilian—have been killed by rebels and Thai security forces since 2004 in the southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia.

Debris from the blast was strewn across the area while an abandoned child’s school bag lay on the road, according to an Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene.

Police and soldiers routinely accompany teachers and children to and from schools in the most dangerous “red zones.”

Scores of teachers have been killed by rebels—some killed in front of pupils.

The rebels appear to have returned to attacking “soft” civilian targets in recent weeks, following several months where violence was aimed at security officials.

The bomb “aimed to kill… indiscriminately as shown by the four-year-old victim,” Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the Thai army in the south, said in social media statement.

The under-reported conflict in Thailand’s southernmost provinces hit the headlines last month after rare bomb attacks in tourist hotspots inside the kingdom killed four people and wounded dozens, including foreigners.

Those blasts carried the hallmarks of the southern rebels, who never claim their attacks.

But Thai authorities have downplayed any possible expansion of the southern conflict— unrest that has so far remained highly localized for more than a decade.

That is despite the identification of five suspects for those attacks—all Muslim men from the deep south, several of whom have a record of involvement in the insurgency.

On Friday, the Thai junta held talks with a group that claims to represent the political aims of the shadowy rebels.

The aim is to set the ground for formal peace talks, which stalled following Thailand’s 2014 coup.

But it is unclear if the rebel representatives at the table have command-and-control over their foot soldiers.

The military is also widely distrusted by Malay Muslims in the south.

Rights groups says years of abuses by security forces including extra-judicial killings, have eroded faith in the Thai state, which is also accused of railroading the local culture. AFP </s> BANGKOK (AP) — Police say a bomb has exploded outside a school in southern Thailand, killing a man and his 4-year-old daughter. Eight people were also injured.

Police Lieutenant Col. Noppadon Kingthong said the bombing happened early Tuesday in Tak Bai town of Narathiwat province.

He said Mayeng Waba and his daughter, Mitra Waba, died of their injuries while being taken to a hospital. Mayeng was dropping his daughter off at the kindergarten in the Baan Ta Baa School when they were caught in the explosion.

Among the injured, three were police personnel and one was from the military, Noppadon said.

Southern Thailand is in the grip of a separatist insurgency led by Muslim militants, who complain of discrimination by the country’s Buddhist majority. They often attack government targets. </s> BANGKOK - A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand's southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 18, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said.

The mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailand's far south are home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslims fighting for autonomy in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since 2004."The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives," ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in said. The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region. No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack. </s> A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand’s southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 22. AP A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand’s southern Yala province on Monday, killing...

Police said the motorcycle was placed near a stall selling pork. The wounded were taken to the main hospital in Yala. Reuters Police said the motorcycle was placed near a stall selling pork. The wounded were taken to the...

The attacker had reportedly parked the bike with explosives nearby and bought goods at the market to blend in. The bomb exploded when he left the market area. Reuters The attacker had reportedly parked the bike with explosives nearby and bought goods at the market...

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. A Thai forensics unit scoured the aftermath of the motorcycle bombing. Getty images No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. A Thai forensics unit scoured the... </s> YALA — Police say three people have been killed and 18 injured by a bomb that exploded in a market in southern Thailand.

Police Lt. Eakapong Rattanachai said an attacker parked a motorcycle rigged with explosives near the market and bought goods there to blend in with the crowd Monday morning in Yala province.

Eakapong said the motorcycle bomb exploded when the attacker left the market area, killing three and injuring 18.

Yala is one of Thailand’s three southernmost provinces where Muslim militants have waged a yearslong insurgency.

The three provinces are the only ones with Muslim majorities in the predominantly Buddhist country.

More than 6,500 people have been killed in the violence since 2004. </s> BANGKOK (Reuters) - A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand’s southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 22, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said, the first such attack in the region in months.

The mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailand’s far south are home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslims fighting for autonomy in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since 2004.

“The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives,” said ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in. The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack on Monday, which took place at a morning market.

Police said the motorcycle was placed near a stall selling pork, which is strictly forbidden for Muslims under Islamic Law.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomb was placed at the pork stall in a deliberate attempt to target Thai Buddhists.

The stall’s female owner and a male customer were among the three people killed, police said. The bomb blew off chunks of the market’s corrugated tin roof and wrecked nearby stalls.

The southern provinces have seen hundreds of attacks since 2004, many of them deadly, but there had been fewer violent incidents of late.

Military personnel and police officers inspect the site of a bomb attack at a market in the southern province of Yala, Thailand, January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Analysts who monitor the conflict say violence from the insurgency fell to an historic low in 2017 despite the fact that talks aimed at bringing peace gained little traction.

Thailand’s military government has tried to revive talks with rebel groups initiated by the previous civilian government, but they have gone almost nowhere.

Resistance to Buddhist rule from Bangkok has existed for decades in the predominantly Muslim southern provinces, waning briefly in the 1990s before resurfacing violently in 2004. </s> Bangkok: A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand’s southern Yala province on Monday, killing three people and wounding 18, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said.

The mostly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailand’s far south are home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic Malay Muslims fighting for autonomy in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since 2004.

“The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives,” said ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in. The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack on Monday, which took place at a roadside morning market.

The region has seen hundreds of attacks since 2004, many of them deadly, but there had been fewer violent incidents of late.

Analysts who monitor the conflict say violence from the insurgency fell to an historic low in 2017 despite the fact that talks aimed at bringing peace gained little traction.

Thailand’s military government has tried to revive talks with rebel groups initiated by the previous civilian government, but they have gone almost nowhere.

Resistance to Buddhist rule from Bangkok has existed for decades in the predominantly Muslim southern provinces, waning briefly in the 1990s before resurfacing violently in 2004. </s> In this photo taken late on April 20, 2017 members of a forensic unit inspect the scene of a bomb blast in Thailand's southern province of Narathiwat. Two suspected insurgents have been reported dead after a series of apparently coordinated attacks rocked 15 separate locations in Thailand's southern border provinces Wednesday.

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A motorcycle bomb kills a father and daughter outside an elementary school in Narathiwat province.