YANGON, Myanmar — A
Myanmar rebel group said
Wednesday it was investigating whether Chinese nationals were among those
killed and wounded in a military airstrike on a mine that it runs.
اضافة اعلان
A coup last year in the Southeast Asian nation has
sparked renewed fighting between the military and some of Myanmar’s numerous
ethnic armed groups.
On Tuesday the
military clashed with fighters from the
Karen National Union (KNU) near the
Thai border, both sides said.
The military later carried out an airstrike on the
Thabyu antimony mine run by the KNU, killing three people, wounding four and
leaving at least eight missing, a KNU commander told AFP.
Locals said one of the dead was a Chinese citizen
and that another had been wounded, media reported.
The KNU commander said around 200 Chinese nationals
were involved in on-site operations at the Thabyu mines and that the group was
“still investigating” whether any were among the dead or missing.
Analysts say many areas along Myanmar’s lawless
eastern border are awash with Chinese investment, including in casinos, mines
and logging.
The junta said it had carried out an “operation” on
the mine, without specifying what this was.
It said the KNU
was carrying out “subversive acts” by “illegally” operating the mine.
“We saw the news that some foreigners were killed,”
junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in response to questions on the attack on the
mine.
“If so, they are just illegal people working
illegally.”
China is one of the Myanmar military’s few
international allies and has refused to label the power grab that ousted Aung
San Suu Kyi’s government a coup.
A Chinese government spokeswoman told a regular
press briefing on Wednesday that she had no information on reports of the
attack on the mine.
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