BANGKOK (AP) – Myanmar’s army yesterday accused opponents of the military-imposed government of responsibility for an explosion that injured 17 people on a ferry boat in the country’s largest city, Yangon.
A statement by the army’s information office blamed the People’s Defense Force, the armed wing of Myanmar’s banned main pro-democracy movement, for the blast on Sunday, but presented no evidence. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Myanmar has been engulfed in what some United Nations (UN) experts have characterised as a civil war since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The army is engaged in brutal large-scale counter-insurgency operations in the countryside, while authorities also contend with urban guerrillas in the cities who target people and institutions associated with the ruling military with assassinations and bombings.
An urban guerrilla group named the Yangon District People’s Brigade expressed sadness about Sunday’s explosion on its Facebook page and said that fighters for democracy would never harm civilians. Such groups have at least a loose affiliation with the People’s Defence Force.
The statement issued by the army’s Tatmadaw True News information team said a homemade bomb exploded on Sunday on the state-owned ferry travelling across the Yangon River.
