Myanmar junta assaults once more as spokesperson defends crackdown

Security forces in Myanmar cracked down closely once more on anti-coup protesters even because the navy downplayed stories of state violence.
Reports on on-line information shops and social media on Friday stated a minimum of 4 individuals had been killed in Bago, about 100 kilometres northeast of Yangon, in an assault by authorities troops and police that started earlier than daybreak and continued sporadically till after darkish.
The Bago Weekly Journal Online stated a supply on the metropolis’s principal hospital, whom it didn’t title, believed about 10 individuals had been killed.
It was the third assault this week involving the large use of lethal drive by safety forces to attempt to crush lively opposition to the February 1 coup that ousted the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Wednesday, assaults had been launched on opponents of navy rule within the cities of Kalay and Taze within the nation’s north. In each locations, a minimum of 11 individuals — probably together with some bystanders — had been reported killed. Security forces had been accused of utilizing heavy weapons of their assaults, together with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. The allegations couldn’t be independently confirmed by The Associated Press.
Some of the protesters used do-it-yourself weapons, particularly in Kalay, the place defenders known as themselves a “civil army,” and a few had been geared up with rudimentary searching rifles.
Most protests in cities and city across the nation have been nonviolent, with demonstrators espousing civil disobedience.
Violence by safety forces was additionally reported Friday in a number of different areas, together with Loikaw, the capital of Kayah sate within the east, the place stay ammunition was employed, in line with quite a few social media posts.
At least 614 protesters and bystanders have been killed by safety forces by Thursday, in line with the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which screens casualties and arrests.
At a information convention within the capital, Naypyitaw, a spokesman for the ruling junta defended the actions of the safety forces.
Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, when requested about stories that computerized weapons have been fired at protesters, replied that if that had been the case, 500 individuals would have been killed in only a few hours.
He challenged the demise toll issued by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and stated the federal government’s tally was 248. He additionally stated 16 policemen had been killed.
Asked about air strikes carried out by authorities jets on territory held by guerrillas from the Karen ethnic minority in jap Myanmar, which reportedly killed a minimum of 14 civilians, Zaw Min Tun stated the aerial raids allowed extra precise concentrating on than floor assaults which might have induced extra deaths. Supporters of the Karen cost that the military is finishing up a floor offensive as nicely, together with using artillery.