BANGKOK, May 11 (Reuters) - Separatist militants in Thailand's Muslim-majority far south appear to be changing tactics after criticism by a world Islamic body, army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said on Friday. Attacks appeared to be more concentrated on the security forces than on civilians deemed to be on the government's side since the comments by the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), he said. "The other side is resorting to a new tactic after their random attacks on both Buddhists and Muslims. After the visit of the OIC chief, who criticised the violence tarnishing their image, they are changing," Sonthi told reporters. Attacks on civilians have continued in the far south -- where more than 2,100 people have been killed in three years of violence -- since OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu spoke in Bangkok last week. But twice in three days, militants have shocked largely Buddhist Thailand with bloody attacks on soldiers. On Wednesday, seven soldiers in a pick-up truck were killed by a roadside bomb, one of the deadliest attacks in the latest separatist war in a largely Malay-speaking region that was an independent sultanate until annexed by Thailand a century ago. On Friday, two policemen were killed at a checkpoint of sandbags and barbed wire by about six militants, police said. The militants, armed with assault rifles and shotguns, arrived at the checkpoint in a pick-up truck, sprayed the policemen with bullets, doused their bodies with gasoline and set them on fire, police said.
