Myanmar arrests six-year-old girl over killing of general

YANGON: Myanmar authorities have arrested 16 people including a six-year-old girl over the assassination of a retired general shot dead in Yangon last month, state media said.

Cho Tun Aung, a former ambassador to Cambodia, was gunned down outside his home on May 22 in an attack claimed by an anti-junta group calling itself the “Golden Valley Warriors”. Myanmar´s military seized power in a 2021 coup, plunging the country into a complex, multi-sided civil war involving pro-democracy guerrillas and resurgent ethnic minority armed groups.

Most fighting is confined to the countryside and smaller towns but grenade and gun attacks on junta-linked targets are regularly reported in Yangon, Myanmar´s largest city and commercial hub.

The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said 16 members of the Golden Valley Warriors -- 13 men and three females -- had been arrested in various locations. Those held include the wife and six-year-old daughter of the suspected shooter, identified as Myo Ko Ko, the state-run newspaper said, without explaining what the girl is accused of. The report said Myo Ko Ko and another suspect rode to the general´s home on bicycles and shot him before fleeing to a safe house.