Gunned – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

At a military parade on Saturday, the general, who led the overthrow of the civilian government in Myanmar last month, said the army was determined to “protect people from all dangers”.

Before the day was over, security forces under his command had shot dead a 5-year-old boy, two 13-year-old boys and a 14-year-old girl. A little girl in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet, even though her parents said she was likely to be alive.

The children killed were among the dozen of people killed on Saturday as security forces cracked down on protests across Myanmar. This appeared to be one of the deadliest days since the February 1 coup led by Major General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of the Tatmadaw, as the military is known. A news agency, Myanmar Now, put the death toll at 80 on Saturday.

“Today is a day of shame for the armed forces,” said Dr. Sasa, a spokesman for a group of elected officials who say they represent the Myanmar government, in a statement.

The killings took place on Armed Forces Day, a holiday in honor of the Tatmadaw that gave rise to General Min Aung Hlaing’s speech in the capital, Naypyidaw.

The general promised to pave the way for democracy despite rejecting the results of the November 8 elections and arresting many of those elected to parliament that day. He reiterated his promise to hold new elections but did not offer a schedule.

More than 3,000 people arrested by the military since the coup include the fallen civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. Your party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide in November.

In his speech to the assembled troops, which was broadcast on national television, General Min Aung Hlaing stated that the Tatmadaw was founded by General Aung San, a national hero. He did not mention that the general was Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s father.

The Armed Forces Day ceremony, a highlight of the year for the Tatmadaw, is usually attended by a large number of foreign diplomats. This year there were fewer representing China and several other neighboring countries.

Also present was Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, who was honored by General Min Aung Hlaing for his praise. On Friday the general gave Mr. Fomin a medal and a ceremonial sword.

Russia has been a major arms supplier to the Myanmar military and, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, can be trusted to work with China to block any attempt by the international body to impose sanctions on Myanmar.

The United States said Thursday that it is imposing its own financial sanctions on two military conglomerates that control much of Myanmar’s economy.

On Saturday, US Ambassador to Myanmar Thomas Vajda said security forces “murdered unarmed civilians, including children,” and called the bloodshed “terrible”.

The U.S. embassy said shots were fired on Saturday at their Yangon cultural center, the American Center. The embassy said no one was injured and that it was investigating.

In an apparent blow to the military on their vacation, the ethnic rebel group known as the Karen National Union said on Facebook that they had overrun and seized a Tatmadaw camp. The group posted photos of weapons it allegedly confiscated, including what appeared to be machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The Tatmadaw has fought with various ethnic groups in Myanmar, including the Karen, for decades. Some opposition leaders hope that urban protesters, mostly from the majority of the Bamar ethnic groups, can form a coalition with the ethnic groups to resist the Tatmadaw.

The widespread murders on Saturday came a day after military-run television threatened protesters “shot in the back and in the back of the head” if they continued to oppose military rule.

About a quarter of those killed before Saturday were shot in the head, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, which has tracked arrests and killings since the coup.

Saturday’s killings took place in more than two dozen cities across the country. Many of the victims were spectators.

14-year-old Ma Pan Ei Phyu was at home in Meiktila, a city in central Myanmar, when the security forces accidentally started shooting in the neighborhood, said her father U Min Min Tun. that she had been killed until she fell to the ground. She had been hit in the chest.

In Yangon, 13-year-old Maung Wai Yan Tun was playing outside when the police and soldiers arrived. Frightened, he ran away and was shot, his mother told the online news agency Mizzima. The family went to retrieve his body, but when they found him surrounded by security guards, they did not dare go near.

One of the bloodiest incidents occurred in Yangon’s Dala Township. Police arrested two demonstrators at their home on Friday afternoon.

Soon after, neighbors gathered in front of the police station and requested her release. Police responded by firing rubber bullets and stunning grenades at the crowd, a witness said.

Residents withdrew but returned to the police station after midnight. This time the security forces opened fire with live ammunition after a long break. At least 10 people were killed and 40 injured.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan – Three women who worked for a local news agency were shot dead in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. This adds to the bloody number of Afghan media workers and journalists killed at alarming rates over the past year.

The women were on their way home from work at Enikass radio and television in the busy city of Jalalabad when they were killed in two separate attacks, according to Shokorullah Pasoon, the broadcaster’s publishing director, who barely offered details about the incident that took place.

Islamic State soon assumed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which oversees the terrorist group’s announcements.

The victims were Mursal Wahidi, 25, Sadia Sadat, 20 and Shahnaz Raofi, 20, who worked in a department that records voice overs for foreign programs, Pasoon said. A fourth woman was wounded in one of the attacks and was taken to hospital, according to a provincial hospital spokesman.

Malalai Maiwand, 26, a television and radio host at Enikass, was shot in the same way in December. The Islamic State subsidiary in the country also took responsibility for this murder.

The Nangarhar police chief initially attributed the attack to the Taliban and said law enforcement officers made an arrest on Tuesday.

The Taliban denied any involvement in the attacks on Tuesday. They were blamed for much of the wave of attacks that began in earnest following the February 2020 peace agreement negotiated between the insurgent group and the United States under former President Donald J. Trump.

The death of women is a dangerous time in Afghanistan as security continues to deteriorate across the country and President Biden considers sticking to the May 1 withdrawal deadline set by his predecessor. Emboldened Taliban either want to win on the battlefield or force the Afghan government to surrender in their ongoing peace talks in Qatar.

Shaharzad Akbar, chairman of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, described the attack as “terrible” on social media on Tuesday. “Afghan women have been attacked and killed too often,” Ms. Akbar said in a tweet.

After the 2001 US invasion, which saw the Taliban and its extremist form of Islamic law banning women from most jobs dismissed, the Afghan media and news networks encouraged a new generation of women despite the endless war around them Afghans and women in particular.

According to a recent report by the United Nations, more than 30 media workers and journalists have been killed in Afghanistan since 2018. According to the UN report, at least six journalists and media workers were killed in such attacks from September 2020 to January this year.

Civilian casualties rose overall after peace negotiations between the government and the Taliban began in September, particularly a wave of targeted killings of judges, prosecutors, civil society activists and journalists.

The recent attacks were “deliberate, deliberate and deliberate crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists and media workers,” the UN report said. “With the clear aim of silencing certain people by killing them while sending a terrifying message to the wider community.”

The New York Times documented the deaths of at least 136 civilians and 168 security personnel in such targeted killings and assassinations in 2020, more than in almost any other year of the war.

The wanton deaths, often in populated areas such as Kabul and other cities, have sparked public outcry for better security among many Afghans, especially among vulnerable people such as journalists and human rights defenders. Government investigations and accountability for the murders have been rare at best.

The Afghan Journalists’ Security Committee said in a statement that “practical and effective steps must be taken to ensure the safety of journalists”.

Although the Taliban rarely takes responsibility for such attacks, the insurgents use them for propaganda purposes, in particular to undermine the Afghan government.

But the Taliban aren’t the only ones taking advantage of the chaos. Afghan and US officials believe that some of the killings last year were carried out by people affiliated with the government or other political parties.

The role of Islamic State in these targeted attacks is also increasing. Although the terrorist group appears militarily trapped in the mountainous east of Afghanistan, it has shifted its strategy from conquering territory on the battlefield to mass-casualty attacks in cities like Kabul and Jalalabad.

In November, the group claimed their fighters were responsible for killing more than 20 people at Kabul University before blowing up the city a few weeks later, killing at least eight people. And in December, the Islamic State took responsibility for the murder of Ms. Maiwand, the journalist at Enikass who had worked there for seven years.

According to her family, Ms. Maiwanda’s mother, an education activist, was killed by unknown armed men about 10 years earlier.

Zabihullah Ghazi reported from Jalalabad and Thomas Gibbons-Neff from Kabul. Najim Rahim and Fatima Faizi reported from Kabul.