By Reuters Staff, published by US News & World Report, and Sanook.com
MYANMAR army fighter jets launched air strikes yesterday (March 27) on a village near the Thai border in territory controlled by an armed ethnic group, the group said, as fears grow of civil war following last month’s military coup.
The Karen National Union (KNU), the armed ethnic group that controls the southeastern region, said fighter jets attacked Day Pu No in Papun district, an area held by its Brigade 5 forces, at around 8 p.m., forcing villagers to flee.
“They bombed the area… The villagers from that area said two dead and two injured,” a spokesperson for civil society group Karen Peace Support Network said, adding that communication was difficult in the remote region and there could be more casualties.
A spokesman for the junta did not answer phone calls seeking comment.
The reported air assault is the most significant attack for years in the region. The KNU had signed a ceasefire agreement in 2015 but tensions surged after the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government on Feb.1.
Earlier on Saturday, the KNU said Brigade 5 forces overran an army base, killing 10 soldiers including a lieutenant-colonel, as the junta celebrated its annual Armed Forces Day with a parade in the capital, Naypyitaw.
The KNU says it has been sheltering hundreds of people who have fled central Myanmar amid mounting violence in recent weeks. The junta’s troops killed dozens of people on Saturday, including children, in one of the bloodiest days of protests since the coup, news reports and witnesses said.
The flare up of the fighting between Myanmar army and KNU raised concern among Thai security forces that this will trigger an influx of refugees across the border, Sanook.com reported this afternoon (March 28).
On March 25 altogether 294 Karens from two villages, Pae Than and Sako Tha, crossed the border to Thailand and are now sheltering on the bank of Salween river in Mae Hong Son province.
The headmen of the two villages told Thai army officers that they fled to Thailand after Myanmar soldiers from the 246th Infantry Battalion came down from their base and threatened to arrest those who oppose or protest against the junta.
The terrified villagers then fled to Thailand. Although Thai officials have talked to them, they refused to return.
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Top and Home Page: Two fighter jets, believed to be Russian-made Mikoyan MiG-29, take off to bomb two Kachin outposts in 2016. Photo: Burmalink.org
(Reporting by Poppy McPherson; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry)
