The United States has asked Thailand to show restraint and resolve the differences between the government and protestors through democratic institutions. The State Department Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters in Washington that the United States deeply deplores the violence and loss of life in clashes between security forces and protests from the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship. Mr. Duguid said the US is encouraged by the actions of the Red Shirt leaders who have surrendered to law enforcement agencies and support their call to the protestors to return home peacefully. The US also condemned the attack on journalists and arson resorted to by the Red Shirt protestors. The US Embassy in Bangkok is currently closed. Meanwhile, gunshots rang out today near a Buddhist temple in the heart of an anti-government protest zone in Bangkok and soldiers were advancing on foot along an elevated train track. According to AFP, several gunshots were heard, striking panic into the crowd of some 2,000 people who had gathered at the temple where the bodies of six people killed in a gun battle the day before were laid out. The authorities today imposed a curfew for three more nights in Bangkok and 23 other provinces to quell conflict in the aftermath of an army offensive against anti-government protesters.