(Reuters) – Myanmar’s military fighter jets on Saturday launched air strikes on a village near the Thai border on territory controlled by an armed ethnic group, the group said, amid fears of civil war following last month’s military coup. increases.
The Karen National Union (KNU), the armed ethnic group that controls the southeastern region, said fighter jets attacked Day Pu No in the Papun district, an area held by Brigade 5 forces, around 8 p.m. and have villagers forced to flee.
“They bombed the area … The villagers from that area said two dead and two injured,” said a civil society spokesperson for the Karen Peace Support Network, adding that communication was difficult in the remote region and that there were more victims. could fall.
A junta spokesperson did not answer calls asking for comment.
The reported air strike is the most significant attack in the region for years. The KNU had signed a ceasefire in 2015, but tensions mounted after the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government on Feb. 1.
Earlier on Saturday, the KNU said that brigade 5 troops captured an army base and killed 10 soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, while the junta celebrated its annual Armed Forces Day with a parade in the capital, Naypyitaw.
The KNU says it has taken in hundreds of people in recent weeks who have fled central Myanmar amid mounting violence. Junta forces killed dozens of people, including children, on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days of protests since the coup, news reports and witnesses said.
Reporting by Poppy McPherson; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry