Myanmar army clashes with anti-junta militia in Mandalay city

Gulf Today Report

Myanmar security forces backed by armoured vehicles clashed on Tuesday with a newly formed militia group in the second-biggest city of Mandalay, according to social media posts from the group and media reports.

Since the army seized power on Feb. 1 and removed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the security forces have put down protests opposing military rule. In response, groups of opponents of the coup known as people's defence forces have sprung up across Myanmar, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, the EU on Monday added eight officials from Myanmar's junta and three firms linked to the military to its sanctions blacklist over the coup and bloody repression of protests.

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Those targeted with asset freezes and visa bans included the interior, security, finance, natural resources and transport ministers, according to listings published in the EU's official journal.

The 27-nation bloc put the state-run gem and timber enterprises on the list as they look to cut off key revenues to the junta which seized power in February.

Groups of opponents of the coup known as people's defence forces have sprung up across Myanmar.

Up to now, fighting involving lightly armed militias has been mainly confined to small towns and rural areas, but a group claiming to be Mandalay's new People's Defence Force said its members responded after the army raided one of its bases.

"We retaliated as one of our guerrilla base camps was invaded," said a post on the group's Facebook page from a Major Zeekwat.

A mass uprising against the putsch has met a brutal crackdown leaving more than 870 civilians dead, according to a local monitoring group.

The army supported by three armoured vehicles had surrounded a boarding school in Mandalay where the militia had a base, the Khit Thit news service reported.

It also added the Myanmar War Veterans Organisation, which acts as a reserve force for the military, to the blacklist.

Aung San Suu Kyi attends a meeting. File photo

The latest additions take the number of individuals and entities sanctioned by the EU to 35 since the bloc's first round of punitive measures agreed in March, according to AFP.

The US and Britain have also targeted key officials and enterprises in the country, but so far the junta has shrugged off Western pressure.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy government.

A spokesman for the junta did not answer calls seeking comment.

The army has responded with artillery and air strikes in other places after militia groups launched attacks on soldiers, with casualties on both sides and tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes.

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday called for a stop to the flow of arms to Myanmar and urged the military to respect the results of a November election and release political detainees, including Suu Kyi.

On Saturday, Myanmar's foreign ministry released a statement rejecting the UN resolution, which it said was "based on one-sided sweeping allegations and false assumptions".

Security forces have killed at least 873 protesters since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group. The junta disputes that figure.