Myanmar is now effectively in a state of all-out civil conflict with a deadly war of attrition between swelling rebel groups and a military fighting for its life and holding on through air power. The disruption and damage caused in Tak province this week as well as the incursion into Thailand’s air space by a Mig 19 fighter of Myanmar’s Air Force highlight the growing crisis in Thailand’s neighbouring country to the West and the challenge it may pose to authorities here if it spirals out of control. Local Thai military units in Tak were placed on high alert, last week, in response to the situation by the National Security Council. Earlier this year, in March, the US-based organisation Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) estimated that some 12,000 people in Myanmar had, at that point, died in the uprising.

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