(For a Q+A on the Thai insurgency, double click on [ID:nBKK485664] and for a related feature [ID:nBKK154617]) YALA, Thailand, Aug 29 (Reuters) - An elderly man was killed and 17 people wounded when a grenade was thrown at a group of Muslims playing boules in Thailand's troubled deep south, police said on Saturday. An unknown attacker on a motorcycle lobbed the grenade at the group around midnight in Pattani, one of three mainly Muslim provinces bordering Malaysia where nearly 3,500 people have died in violence since 2004 blamed mostly on separatist insurgents. The attack took the number of deaths in the rubber-rich region to 17 in the last 10 days, with more than 60 people wounded. Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces were part of a Malay Muslim sultanate until annexed by Buddhist Thailand a century ago and separatist tensions have simmered ever since. Local Muslims largely oppose the presence of tens of thousands of police, soldiers and state-armed Buddhist guards, whom many suspect of carrying out extrajudicial killings. The authorities deny the allegations. (Reporting by Surapan Boonthanom; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Martin Petty )
A farmer burns a paddy field in Thailand's Nakhonsawan province, 270 km (167 miles) north of Bangkok August 25, 2009. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom (THAILAND ENVIRONMENT AGRICULTURE) ...
