A total of 27 people were killed and 11 injured last week when ethnic rebels attacked two passenger buses in south-eastern Myanmar, state media said Monday. Ten people were killed and three wounded Thursday in an attack on a minibus in Karen state, near the eastern border with Thailand, the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar said.
Rebels detonated a bomb as the bus drove by and then shot at the wreckage, the paper said. Another 17 people were killed and eight injured Friday in neighbouring Kayah state when rebels shot up their minibus.
Eastern Myanmar is home to one of the world's longest-running insurgencies, with the rebel Karen National Union battling for nearly six decades for autonomy. But such attacks on passenger buses have been rare in recent years, even amid a surge in violence over the past year.
The paper blamed "terrorist insurgents" for the attacks, but did not single out any particular group. Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962, but since the 1990s has signed cease-fires with 17 other ethnic armed groups.
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