{"id":116072,"date":"2021-04-10T21:27:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T21:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=184773"},"modified":"2021-04-10T21:27:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T21:27:27","slug":"ethnic-army-alliance-kills-14-myanmar-police-in-dawn-raid-as-death-toll-mounts-in-bago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/04\/10\/ethnic-army-alliance-kills-14-myanmar-police-in-dawn-raid-as-death-toll-mounts-in-bago\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic Army Alliance Kills 14 Myanmar Police in Dawn Raid as Death Toll Mounts in Bago"},"content":{"rendered":"
Three ethnic armed groups that support Myanmar\u2019s anti-junta protest movement killed 14 police officers and burned their station to the ground in a dawn raid on Saturday in northern Shan state, witnesses told RFA.<\/p>\n
The slain policemen included the chief of the Naungmon police station south of Lashio, the largest city in northern Shan state, a region near the border with China where ethnic fighters have been in conflict with the Myanmar military for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cFourteen policemen, including the patrol station chief, were killed, and seven others were injured,\u201d said an aid worker who spoke to RFA\u2019s Burmese Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe entire police station was burned down. The officers\u2019 families are sheltering in local monastery, and all dead bodies are now at Lashio military hospital,\u201d said the relief worker, who helped retrieve the bodies of the dead patrolmen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were lying dead here and there in the compound, and we had to collect the bodies and prepare them for transport to Lashio,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The attack was launched at dawn by the Three Brotherhood Alliance of the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta\u2019ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a local resident said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard gunfire between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m.,\u201d said a Naungmon villager, who did not want to be named for security reasons.<\/p>\n
The morning raid sparked fierce fighting in Khar Shwe village outside Lashio as the military regime sent helicopters to attack the ethnic rebels, a local resident said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe military used helicopters in the morning fight in supporting firepower against the rebel forces. From the hills we could see the fighting from far away,\u201d said the witness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard the rebel troops had pulled out of the area from Mawtaung village and military forces were chasing after them,\u201d he said, describing the area of the police station attack as quiet by Saturday evening.<\/p>\n