Thai authorities suspect the militant group BRN of setting off a weekend blast that killed eight soldiers.

The 6:30 a.m. Saturday explosion, in Thailand's restive southern province of Yala, destroyed the soldiers' Unimog transport vehicle and ripped a 9-foot-wide hole in the middle of the road.

Two soldiers and two nearby civilians were injured in the attack.

Security officers in escort vehicles opened fire on suspected attackers in an adjacent plantation field.

A .38-caliber pistol and pieces of two 30-pound gas canisters believed to have contained the explosives were found later at the blast site.

The Bangkok Post reported National Security Council Secretary-General Paradorn Pattanatabut as saying he suspected the attack was done by militants with links to the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, which is in discussions with the government to end the violence.

"They could be an extremist group with links to the BRN who disagree with the peace talks," Lt. Gen. Paradorn said.

A 15-member government delegation -- including Paradorn -- met with representatives of the Muslim BRN and other insurgent groups in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in late March.

Paradorn said at the time he was optimistic the talks eventually would lead to "an atmosphere that yields solutions or yields progress that would result in solutions."

He also said the immediate focus was to end the violence between government forces and rebels that has claimed more than 5,000 lives in the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, an area that borders Malaysia.

The provinces are under emergency law in an attempt by police, the military and the paramilitary Royal Thai Rangers to stem violence against Buddhist monks, school teachers and village officials as well as security forces.

The government has more than 60,000 soldiers, including the Rangers, a paramilitary group originally set up by the central government in the 1970s to fight communist insurgents in the mostly isolated jungles of southern Thailand.

The peace talks have focused on creating a cease-fire covering the Ramadan period that starts July 9. However, the talks may have created divisions within militant groups.

Last week the BRN submitted seven demands to the government in return for temporarily ending the violence. They include the release of all BRN detainees in the southern provinces and to allow outside groups to observe the peace process in Malaysia. The BRN also demanded security forces should be withdrawn from Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces.

Amnesty International has called for the rebels to stop their fight against the authorities and civilians -- so-called soft targets.

The report said armed and organized ethnic Malays -- nearly all Muslims -- have been fighting the officially and predominantly Buddhist Thai state.

Amnesty's 64-page report "Unlawful Killings in Thailand's Southern Insurgency" was based on extensive interviews with victims of violence in the four southernmost provinces.

Last week The Bangkok post also reported the drive-by shooting death of a 24-year-old school teacher in Yala last week. She was shot while driving her motorcycle.

In Narathiwat, two people in their 30s were badly injured when a passenger on a motorcycle shot at them, the Post reported,