Myanmar military accuses opponents of bombing ferry boat

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s army has accused opponents of the military-imposed government of responsibility for an explosion that injured 17 people on a ferry boat in the country’s largest city, Yangon. The army’s information office blamed the People’s Defense Force, the armed wing of Myanmar’s banned main pro-democracy movement, for the blast Sunday, but presented no evidence. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Myanmar has been engulfed in what some U.N. experts have characterized as a civil war since the military seized power from an elected government in February 2021. The army is engaged in brutal large-scale counter-insurgency operations in the countryside, while authorities also contend with urban guerrillas in the cities.