Three Myanmar migrants in Thailand killed by errant war drone

Three migrants from Myanmar have been killed and two wounded after a drone used in their country’s civil war exploded in neighbouring Thailand where they were working, Thai police said Wednesday.

Thai authorities received reports of the blast in Tak Province, opposite Myanmar’s Karen (Kayin) State, on Tuesday afternoon and rushed to the scene, local police chief Anusorn Dungkong told AFP.

“Three people have died, all of them Myanmar migrant workers, and two others were injured,” he said.

The apparent attack drone struck a tree on the Thai side of the border before exploding, killing the labourers who worked on a nearby chilli farm, Anusorn added.

The two injured people, also from Myanmar, were taken to a local hospital for treatment, he said.

Myanmar’s armed forces have been fighting myriad pro-democracy guerrillas and powerful ethnic-minority armed groups since the military seized power in a 2021 coup.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to various ethnic-minority factions, many of which have battled the military for autonomy and control of lucrative natural resources since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.

Both the military and ethnic armies are known to use drones in battle, but it was not immediately clear which side had launched the drone that exploded in Thai territory.

Karen rebel factions control much of the state and heavy fighting with the military on Tuesday sent scores of Myanmar people fleeing across the border into Thailand, local media reports said.

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