Gunmen open fire on Thai school bus near border with Myanmar

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Three masked gunmen opened fire on a Thai school bus near the border with Mynamar on Tuesday, killing two teen-age students and wounding 15 others.

The attack threatened to deepen the enmity between neighbors Thailand and Myanmar.

A senior Thai defense official said the shooting in Ratchaburi province, about 12 miles from Myanmar, was probably carried out by one of Myanmar's ethnic minority guerrilla groups and may have been intended to "create more misunderstanding" between Thailand and Myanmar.

Relations between the Southeast Asian neighbors have deteriorated since a shelling incident last month along their 1,300-mile frontier, where fighting between Myanmar's government and rebels often spills over into Thailand.

The school bus was carrying about 20 junior high school students when it came under a hail of bullets as it was climbing a steep road in the mountainous jungle district of Suan Phung.

"There was nothing but screaming on the bus," said Siriporn, a girl who survived. "I ducked down and escaped the bullets."

Two of her friends, a boy and a girl, were killed and 15 others were wounded, all between 14 to 17 years old. Nine of the wounded youths were in critical condition, hospital officials said.

The gunmen, armed with M-16s and wearing hoods and military fatigues, looked like rebels from Myanmar's Karen ethnic minority, and apparently escaped back into Myanmar, police and local officials said.

A spokesman for the main Karen rebel group fighting Myanmar's government denied involvement and speculated that Myanmar's military junta may have been behind the attack.

"We are faithful friends of Thailand," Mahn Sha, secretary general of Karen National Union, told The Associated Press.

Hundreds of Thai soldiers and border police assisted by helicopters were searching for the gunmen in the area near the attack, said Thailand deputy defense minister, Gen. Yuthasak Sasiprapa.

Rebels belonging to Myanmar's Shan and Karen minorities have been fighting for autonomy since the country, also known as Burma, gained independence from Britain in 1948.

The Karen rebels have crossed into Thailand in the past to mount attacks, including sieges of a hospital near the border and of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, the capital.

Myanmar accused the Thai army of an artillery barrage across the border on May 20 to support attacks by rebels belonging to the Shan minority. Thailand insists its forces only fired a few warning shots.