17 killed in Thai military base attack

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/gunmen-dead-in-thai-military/story-fn3dxix6-1226576889569

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Scores of heavily armed gunmen have stormed a military base in southern Thailand, leaving at least 17 militants dead.

"Some 100 fully armed militants stormed the base, where there were 60 marines," Colonel Pramote Promin, southern army spokesman, told AFP on Wednesday.

He said the attack was one of the most ambitious in several years of violence in Thailand's deep south.

No military casualties were reported in the early hours assault at the base in Bacho district of Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-dominated provinces near the border with Malaysia.

"We learned of the attack in advance from defected militants," Pramote told Thai television.

"We were able to secure the camp. All of our force are safe."

He added that a key local leader of the fighters, who wore bulletproof vests during the attack, had been killed.