SONGKHLA, Thailand (AP) — Police say suspected insurgents have detonated a roadside bomb that killed two soldiers in Thailand's violence-plagued south.

Police Col. Wasan Puangnoi says a group of unknown militants hid an improvised bomb on a road in Yarang district in Pattani province and set it off Friday morning as a pickup truck carrying four soldiers passed by.

He says the explosion killed two of the soldiers. The other two were injured and rushed to a hospital.

Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are the only provinces with Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in the southern region since an Islamist insurgency flared in 2004.