Myanmar military launches airstrikes against ethnic minority guerrillas on 2 fronts

Myanmar’s military forces on Wednesday launched a series of airstrikes on the ethnic minority guerrillas on at least two fronts, in northern Myanmar on Kachin Independence Organization stronghold, and on the Karen National Union-controlled East. The airstrikes were conducted after the ethnic Karen guerrillas captured a Myanmar army base a few days ago near the border with Thailand, a guerrilla spokesman, a senior Thai official and a relief worker told The Associated press on condition of anonymity. The military struck the villages in the territories controlled by the alliances of the popular movement for several hours. The air raids were accompanied by the Myanmar anti-military coup protesters launching a civil disobedience movement across several parts of the Southeast Asian nation seeing the move as a morale booster. 

A spokesperson for the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), a main political group seeking political autonomy from Myanmar’s central government, said that its armed wing captured the base at 5 am and burned down the military outpost shortly afterward in support of anti-coup protesters. The prominent ethnic group’s insurgency near the Thai border was in defiance to the military’s brutal crackdowns against civilians, and use of lethal weaponry and coercion. Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups, including the Karen National Union, started an armed rebellion with Burmese military forces near Myanmar’s eastern border. They launched an offensive in other locations too, the details of which have not yet been disclosed. 

[Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi raises his hands as he is escorted by police upon arrival at the Myaynigone police station in Sanchaung township in Yangon, Myanmar. Credit: AP]

450 villagers evacuated

Governor of Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, Sithichai Jindaluang, told a news conference earlier yesterday that Karen guerrillas had waged a war with the Myanmar army on two fronts with live ammunition exchanged. A woman was reported injured with the bullet. Close to 450 villagers have been evacuated from Mae Sam Lap to safety, Jindaluang told reporters. As Myanmar Junta’s Air Forces launched airstrikes on the civilian villages to root out the ethnic rebel factions, as many as 24,000 were forced to flee their homes in the border region, a local aid group Free Burma Rangers said in a statement. Military bombings hit at least two townships in Papun district, an official with Free Burma Rangers Dave Eubank told ABC. 

Recent violence aimed at ousting the Myanmar military’s oppressive regime comes in the backdrop of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders reaching a consensus with Myanmar's junta chief to end all hostilities in the region. Myanmar’s military chief Min Aung Hlaing had committed to halting all humanitarian breaches by instructing his troops to refrain from killing protesters, the ASEAN members said in a public statement. 

[South-East Asian leaders met Myanmar's top general in an emergency summit in Indonesia over the weekend. AP via Indonesian Presidential Palace: Laily Rache]