Bangkok, Thailand - Thailand plans to declare "violent zones" in Muslim southern provinces where security forces will seek to hunt down and kill Islamic insurgents blamed for a surge of deadly attacks, the defense minister said.
"At the moment, the violence is escalating more and more. They are killing indiscriminately, and the situation will continue until those militants are killed," General Thammarak Issarangkura Na Ayutthaya said.
Each district in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces will be declared either "violent" or "peaceful," he told reporters after a special national security meeting to address the mounting bloodshed.
"We will have to fight them in the violent zones," he warned, without specifying which areas would fall in the military's crosshairs.
The minister said a spate of beheadings this month -- including a man decapitated in broad daylight at a roadside teashop in Narathiwat province -- was not necessarily the work of insurgents.
The beheadings could have been committed by narcotraffickers, gangs of extortionists, or owners of illegal casinos with ties to the militants, he said.
Thammarak spoke after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra held a special meeting of his security chiefs, including the heads of the army, police, the National Security Council, the National Intelligence Agency, and the interior and defense ministries.
The defense minister said the zoning scheme would begin once the government finishes training village self-defense forces -- teams of volunteers who receive military training and arms.
Before the meeting, Thaksin told reporters that insurgents had increased the level of violence for fear of being arrested.
"They have stepped up their attacks because they're afraid they will be arrested, so they are terrorizing local residents. Then they hope that they can have full control," he said.
Thaksin's government was forced to back down in February from another zoning scheme that received widespread criticism for proposing to cut much-needed funding to villages perceived as sympathetic to the insurgents.
At least 720 people have died since a January 2004 raid on an army weapons depot triggered a separatist insurgency in provinces near the Malaysian border.
The beheading of a Buddhist trader was the fifth this month. Before June, only three people had been beheaded.
Other forms of killing remain more common, with shootings, bombings and arson attacks now part of daily life.
In the latest attacks, a former Muslim mayor was shot dead while riding his motorcycle in Pattani province.
Four government employees were injured -- three of the critically -- when suspected militants detonated a bomb in a park in Narathiwat town as they were doing evening exercises.
In the latest attacks, simultaneous bomb blasts rocked four southern district administration offices, but no one was injured, police said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks of the last 18 months and only a handful of people have been arrested.
Authorities and analysts warn the violence is the result of a volatile mix of separatists, smugglers and organized crime, as well as corrupt politicians and security forces.