Seven dead, dozen injured as attacks rock Thai south

 Bangkok

 Three people were killed and a dozen injured in four separate bomb blasts in Thailand's war-torn deep south, police said Saturday, while another four died from shooting and arson attacks.

 More than 6,300 people have been killed in near-daily conflict pitting troops and police against rebels seeking greater autonomy for the three Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia since 2004.

 In the latest spate of attacks, three people died Friday evening when a motorcycle bomb exploded outside a karaoke bar in southern Songkhla province's Sadao district, which borders the conflict-hit region and is frequently swept up in the unrest.

 "Three were killed in the blast and four injured," Major General Puthichart Ekachant, the deputy police commander for the southern region, said.

 Southernmost Narathiwat province saw three bomb blasts Friday, including at a karaoke bar in Sugnai Kolok district that wounded eight people shortly before the motorcycle bomb went off, according to a statement by Thailand's southern regional police.

 Shortly after midnight an arson attack on shops in the same district left three more people dead, police said, while in a nearby area a 35-year-old Muslim man was shot dead by an unknown number of gunmen who fled the scene.