YALA- Suspected Islamist insurgents shot dead five Muslims, mostly civilians, in a new spate of attacks across the troubled south of Thailand, police said Tuesday.

Gunmen killed a former village chief and his deputy in a drive-by attack on their car in restive Yala province on Monday, they said.

A Muslim villager was killed when attackers broke into his house in Narathiwat province on Monday night while two Muslim rangers died in separate shootings in Pattani province, also on Monday, said police.

Separately a ranger was critically wounded in a bomb blast in Pattani.

More than 3,900 people have died in shootings, bombings, beheadings, burnings and crucifixions since a separatist insurgency erupted in Thailand's southern provinces bordering Malaysia in January 2004.