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MYANMAR-CONFLICT
At least 14 dead in unprecedented rebel attack on Myanmar military town
PYIN OO LWIN, Myanmar, Aug 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least 14 people have
been killed in ongoing fighting Thursday between Myanmar’s military and
rebels who mounted a series of attacks, including an unprecedented strike on
an army academy, apparently in retaliation for massive drug seizures.
Ethnic armed rebel groups have for decades fought against the military —
and often between themselves — for land and resources in Myanmar’s east.
Experts say the area is now the world’s largest meth-producing region,
funding the complex web of conflicts.
Thursday’s brazen assault targeted Pyin Oo Lwin, a tourist town near
Mandalay, that is also home to barracks teeming with soldiers receiving
training.
An AFP reporter at a police post, the site of one of the attacks, counted
the bodies of seven soldiers and four policemen.
Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told AFP three more
people, two soldiers and one civilian, had been killed and that fighting was
“still ongoing”.
This brings the death toll to at least 14.
One of the five attacks targeted the town’s Defence Service Technology
Academy, where military engineers are trained, the first-ever time the
training centre has been hit.
The military said rebels had fired 107mm rockets at the academy from a
nearby hillside. Images from local media showing burned out cars and damaged
buildings showered in debris.
The Taaung National Liberation Army (TNLA) claimed the attacks, saying
they had acted in retaliation.
“The military launched offensives in our area so we are fighting to defend
ourselves,” TNLA spokesman Major Mai Aik Kyaw said.
He also confirmed the attacks were coordinated with the Myanmar National
Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Arakan Army (AA).
The AA is currently fighting the military, or Tatmadaw, in conflict-
scarred western Rakhine state, but is in a tight alliance with the other
rebel groups.
“We assume they carried out the attacks because the Tatmadaw seized tonnes
of drugs a few weeks ago,” military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said.
In July, narcotics police were met with heavy artillery fire when they
launched a major drugs crackdown in Kutkai township in neighbouring Shan
state.
Huge stockpiles of chemicals as well as millions of dollars worth of ice,
the highly addictive crystalised form of meth, were seized in a single raid.
The “Golden Triangle” — a lawless wedge of land intersecting China,
Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos — has long served as a base for opium and heroin
production.
A unilateral ceasefire in Shan state declared by the military in December
is officially due to finish in two weeks, even though clashes with armed
groups have continued.
China’s plans to invest in major infrastructure projects have added
another dimension to the conflict with groups vying for control of
increasingly valuable territory.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1855 hrs