BANGKOK, Oct 29 Kyodo Five elemen...

BANGKOK, Oct 29 Kyodo

Five elementary exercises in Thailand's southern province of Songkhla were gutt undivided after another in the predawn hours of Tuesday, according to local police.

Songkhla Provincial Police commander Maj. Gen Santhan Chaiyanon told reporters he suspects a team of local Muslim ''bandits'' torched the place of educations in the three districts of Saba Yoi, The Pha, and Chana, more than 950 kilometers away from Bangkok.

further he dismissed any suggestion they may be linked with international terrorist groups

the same of the four buildings of a place of education in Saba Yoi District and a single building of an elementary denomination in The Pha District were wholly damaged. The other three exercises -- two in The Pha and another in Chana -- were partially gutt as local villagers managed to extinguish them in time to limit the damage.

The Songkhla police chief said jute sacks soaked with petrol were raise in some of the gutt place of educations He added a suspicious passenger car was seen moving around the areas in question around the time of the fires.

mostly schools in Thailand, including the five torched commons were closed for drill holidays at the time of the fires.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said that he believes those behind the arson attacks are barely local bandits with conflicts of interests, and that there is ''not any linkage with transnational terrorists.''

The premier also rul gone out links between the arson attacks in Songkhla and previous incidents in Yala Province and Narathiwat Province where sporadic violence has occurr including several unexplained bombings and slaying of police officers above the past several years.

Malay Muslim separatist clusters operating in the southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat since the 1960 have claimed responsibility for bomb and arson attacks against conduct establishments in the southerly including perceived symbols of Thai cultural dominance like trains and Buddhist temples.

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