Thaksin to go tough against militants

Three men were shot dead early Saturday, while a fourth was stabbed to death late Friday in three southern provinces near the Malaysian border, police said.

Police blamed the four killings, as well as a failed bombing targeted at a truckload of teachers, and a separate shooting injury, on the year-long Islamic separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 610 lives.

As the violence raged early Saturday, Thaksin gave an unusually impassioned radio address defending his hard-line policies against critics who say his tactics are overly harsh and discriminatory.

"It seems that all these critics are more concerned about the lives of separatist militants than of the innocent villagers who are killed every day, especially in the past week as the situation deteriorated with both killings and bombing," he said. "These militants are killing indiscriminately, not just Buddhist Thais or Muslim Thais. They would kill anyone if they had the chance," Thaksin said.