Ethnic rebels reportedly shoot down Burmese navy helicopter

• Kachin Independence Military fighters claimed Wednesday to have shot down a Burmese navy helicopter.
• The insurgent group is considered one of a number of ethnic resistance forces combating Burma’s navy dictatorship.
• Burma has been dominated by navy junta for the reason that 2021 overthrow of democratically-elected State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Fighters from an ethnic minority group battling Burma’s navy authorities mentioned they shot down a helicopter believed to be on a resupply mission in a fight zone within the northern state of Kachin on Wednesday.

The helicopter was shot down quickly after taking off from a military outpost to return to its base in Myitkyina township, the state’s capital, round 11:50 a.m., Col. Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Military, instructed The Related Press.

Burma’s navy, which got here to energy in February 2021 after seizing energy from the elected authorities of Aung San Suu Kyi, has been battling pro-democracy resistance forces loosely allied with armed ethnic minority teams in search of better autonomy.

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There was no fast remark from the navy authorities concerning the helicopter declare and The Related Press was unable to contact any witnesses within the distant space. A spokesperson for Kachin Human Rights Watch, who requested to be recognized solely by his first title Jacob for concern of being arrested by the navy, mentioned the group’s members within the space had confirmed to him {that a} helicopter had crashed there.

Impartial media sympathetic to the resistance motion additionally cited witnesses to the crash and at the very least two movies circulating on social media confirmed an object apparently on fireplace and trailing black smoke make a steep and uncontrolled dive right into a hilly space. The falling object was not readily identifiable.

Naw Bu mentioned the plane crashed close to the Nahpaw military outpost, near Nam San Yang village in Waing Maw township, which is about 240 miles northeast of Mandalay, the nation’s second-biggest metropolis.

He mentioned the variety of casualties was unknown.

The navy authorities has management of air house and incessantly carries out bombing and strafing missions in opposition to which resistance forces have little efficient protection. The raids incessantly trigger civilian casualties.

In October 2022, airstrikes killed as many as 80 individuals, together with members of the Kachin Independence Military, visitors and entertainers on the group’s anniversary celebration in a distant mountainous space in Kachin’s Hpakant township.

A few 12 months later, the navy was accused of finishing up an airstrike that killed about 30 individuals, together with a couple of dozen youngsters, in a camp for displaced individuals in Laiza, a city that additionally hosts the Kachin Independence Military headquarters.

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The Kachin Independence Military, which is best armed and has extra fight expertise than different ethnic armed teams, in Might 2021 claimed to have shot down one other navy helicopter.