In Burma, a passenger on a domestic flight was injured in the face on Friday (September 30th) when rebels opened fire on the aircraft as it landed, the country's ruling military junta said.
A bullet passed through the fuselage of the Myanmar National Airlines plane as it descended on Loikaw, the capital of eastern Kayah state.
Burma has been in chaos since the February 2021 military coup that toppled the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi and sparked a bloody crackdown on dissent.
Read alsoBurma facing the specter of civil war
Anti-coup activists have gone underground across the country to fight the junta, allying themselves in some areas with local ethnic militias who have been in conflict with the authorities for decades.
The plane from the capital Naypyidaw came under fire at an altitude of around 1,000 meters some six kilometers north of Loikaw airport on Friday morning, the junta said in a statement.
The statement blamed the shooting on fighters from an anti-junta militia and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), a rebel faction.
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A passenger on board sustained a gunshot wound to the right cheek
," the statement said.
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The injured passenger is now being treated at Loikaw Hospital and security forces are carrying out security operations in the area where the attack took place.
Since the putsch, more than 2,300 people have been killed by security forces and more than 15,000 arrested, according to a local NGO.
The latest assessment of civilian casualties attributed to the rebels by the junta amounts to nearly 3,900 dead.