A military jet crashes in eastern Myanmar. Ethnic resistance groups claim they shot it down
By GRANT PECK
Associated Press
BANGKOK (AP) — Reports from Myanmar say one of the military government’s jet fighters has crashed in a combat zone in the eastern state of Kayah. A spokesperson for an ethnic armed group, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, says it shot down the plane during heavy fighting near Loikaw, the capital of Kayah state. An officer in Myanmar’s military confirmed that one of its aircraft crashed somewhere in Kayah, but said he didn’t know whether it was shot down or crashed due to technical failure. No warplanes are known to have been shot down previously by resistance forces since the army seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.