BANGKOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2021) An ethnic Kachin rebel army in Myanmar's far north claimed on Monday to have downed a military helicopter that was attacking their positions, media said.
"It happened at around 10:20 a.m. today. The attack on the gunship scared away two fighter jets accompanying the helicopter," Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), told the Irrawaddy news website.
KIA resumed its decades-old struggle against government troops after the Myanmar military ousted the country's elected civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and seized power in a February 1 coup.
Fighting between KIA insurgents and Myanmar troops has been raging near the town of Momauk in northern Kachin state. Rebels captured a strategic hill overlooking KIA headquarters and the Alaw Bum air base, which the military used to launch air strikes.
