Myanmar military and rebel group launches attacks at least 15 dead

RANGOON, Burma -- An ethnic rebel group fighting Burma's government attacked the military in a northern town Saturday, leaving at least 15 people dead and 20 injured, including civilians, officials said.
The Ta'ang National Liberation Army launched three attacks just after 5 a.m. in the town of Muse in Shan state, government spokesman Zaw Htay said on Facebook. Two of the attacks occurred at military bases and the other at a bridge. The 15 dead and 20 injured included civilians, Zaw Htay said.

Aye Myint, a police officer in Muse, said the death toll was 19, and that Ta'ang National Liberation Army fighters used small arms as well as mortars.
Nan Mwe Phown, a Red Cross member who was at a hospital in Muse, said the dead included 13 male civilians and two female civilians, including a pregnant woman, as well as several police officers.
Video on social media showed smoke rising above Muse's prominent trading center.
The Ta'ang National Liberation Army is among more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups that have been fighting the central government for greater autonomy for decades. In the past few months, clashes between ethnic groups and the military in Burma's northeastern region have intensified, resulting in thousands of people being displaced in neighboring Kachin state.
Burma's army has earned a reputation for extrajudicial killings, torture, forced labor, rape and other abuses against the country's various minority groups.
The army has been accused of systematic human-rights violations against the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority in the western state of Rakhine, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh since August.
Also Saturday, protesters calling for an end to the violence in Kachin and elsewhere in the country scuffled with police in Rangoon. Eight demonstrators were arrested, police said.
The protest organizers had been informed last week that the event was denied permission to take place. Authorities said the protest would violate a previously issued order that banned protests in 11 of Rangoon's 14 townships.
About 200 activists walked slowly through the center of Rangoon, Burma's biggest city, chanting and carrying banners saying "Stop the War" and "Give peace a chance."
About 100 police stood in a line to block their path, leading to some scuffles and a number of arrests.