BANGKOK: Clashes between the Myanmar military and anti-government insurgents have flared in recent days, with villagers saying Saturday that 14 people were killed in a single raid.
Deadly clashes have engulfed the country since the army deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021 and unleashed a crackdown on dissent that has left thousands of people dead.
14 killed in Myanmar Clashes
The government has been fighting the anti-coup “People’s Defence Force,” an ethnic group that controls large areas of territory close to Myanmar’s borders.
A senior army source told AFP on the condition of anonymity that fighting had been going on in recent days in Karen, Kachin, Kayah, Sagaing and Magway regions.
Villagers at Sone Chaung village in Sagaing told AFP the Myanmar army had killed as many as 14 people in a raid on Friday. They said the army personnel came looking for PDF leaders in the village.
One said that six of the dead were allegedly PDF men, but the rest of the people were civilians, and the bodies were found scattered over a wide area, apparently cut or shot down as they tried to escape.
“Clashes and raids of PDF positions in Magway and Sagaing regions are ongoing now a days,” military source confirmed without giving more details.
Access to the regions is difficult for media persons, making it hard to independently confirm the local accounts.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US and regional countries must press the junta to end violence and return to democracy in the country.
