YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Security forces stormed a city in northwestern Myanmar on Wednesday where some residents had used homemade shotguns to resist the military’s coup in February, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring many others, local news reports.
If the 11 deaths are confirmed, this would be one of the highest one-day death tolls outside of the country’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay.
Online news site Khonumthung Burmese said the attack on Kalay started before dawn. Videos on the site feature sounds of gunfire, high caliber weapons and grenade explosions. Social media reports said missile grenades were used in the attack, but provided no evidence.
The news site said that in addition to the seven fatalities, many people were injured and arrested in the city, also known as Kalemyo or Kale. More than half of the city’s population belongs to the Chin ethnic minority.
According to news sites The Irrawaddy and Myanmar Now, most deaths occurred in the morning, but more were reported in the afternoon, bringing the total to 11.
Security forces on Tuesday killed at least 581 protesters and bystanders in their crackdown on the February 1 coup protests that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which oversees victims and arrests .
Almost all protests were nonviolent, but as police and soldiers stepped up their use of deadly force, some participants armed themselves with homemade weapons such as gasoline bombs for self-defense. In Kalay some residents took up simple but deadly homemade shotguns.
Myanmar Now reported on Tuesday that protesters in Kalay had set up strongholds nearby and security forces had claimed victims.
It said on March 28, when the army attempted to attack Kalay, protesters in the city and nearby villages had fiercely resisted. The attack took place a day after the junta’s forces killed more than 110 people across the country, the highest death toll since the coup.
The report said protesters “could do more than hold their own. Four of them died that night, but so did an equal number of the enemy, including an officer or two. The protesters also injured 17 of their heavily armed attackers. “
The protesters, who have organized themselves into a “Kalay Civil Army,” claimed more casualties in the following days, he said.
Daily protests against military rule continued on Wednesday in other cities and towns, including Mogok in central Myanmar, and Bago, northeast of Yangon, where it was reported on social media that security forces fired live ammunition at protesters. News site Irrawaddy reported two deaths in Bago.
Dozens of people burned a Chinese flag and marched into Ahlone Municipality in Yangon, calling for a boycott of Chinese-made products. Many protesters believe Beijing is backing the military regime with economic and political backing, including the threat of a right of veto by the UN Security Council against international sanctions.