Thailand's savage southern conflict 

BBC News, Bangkok 

 
The southern conflict has claimed some 3,500 lives since 2004
Five years ago, on the morning of 4 January 2004, a group of more than 50 Muslim militants stormed an army depot in Narathiwat province.

They killed four soldiers, took more than 300 weapons and burned 20 schools.

The incident marked a dramatic escalation of the decades-old conflict in the south between ethnic Malay separatists and Thai security forces.