An 82-year-old Islamic religious teacher was killed in a drive-by shooting while he was riding a motorcycle late Saturday in Narathiwat, one of three insurgency-hit provinces bordering Malaysia, police said.

Earlier in the day, a 45-year-old Muslim man was gunned down at his home in Narathiwat, where another Muslim, aged 38, was also killed in a drive-by shooting late Friday.

In neighboring Pattani, a 33-year-old Buddhist was shot dead by rebels at a tea house late Friday while a 20-year-old Muslim man was killed in another drive-by.

The latest shootings came after Islamic rebels ambushed and shot dead seven soldiers Friday in one of the deadliest attacks this year on security forces in the south.

More than 2,200 people have been killed and thousands more wounded in separatist violence that erupted in the south in January 2004.

The violence has continued despite peace-building measures by the military-installed government, which came to power following a coup in September last year.

The Muslim-majority region was once an autonomous sultanate, until it was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand a century ago. Separatist unrest has erupted there periodically ever since.