(Reuters) – Myanmar army fighter jets launched air strikes on Saturday in a village near the border with Thailand, in territory controlled by an armed ethnic group, the group said, as fears of a civil war escalated after the military coup last month.
Karen National Union (KNU), an armed ethnic group that controls the southeastern region, said that fighters attacked Day Pu No in the Papun district, an area maintained by its Brigade 5 forces, around 8 pm, forcing residents to flee.
“They bombed the area … The residents of that area said two dead and two wounded,” said a spokesman for the civil society group Karen Peace Support Network, adding that communication was difficult in the remote region and that there could be more victims. .
A board spokesman did not respond to calls for comment.
The reported air strike is the most significant attack in years in the region. The KNU had signed a ceasefire agreement in 2015, but tensions increased after the military toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government on February 1.
Earlier on Saturday, the KNU said that Brigade 5 forces invaded an army base, killing 10 soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, while the junta celebrated its Armed Forces Day with an annual parade in the capital, Naypyitaw.
KNU says it has welcomed hundreds of people who have fled central Myanmar amid growing violence in recent weeks. Military junta troops killed dozens of people on Saturday, including children, in one of the bloodiest days of protests since the coup, the news and witnesses said.
Reporting by Poppy McPherson; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry