Military places restive areas of Myanmar under martial law

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Martial law has been declared in several areas of military-run Myanmar, a day after authorities announced that a state of emergency has been extended throughout the country, which is wracked by violence that some U.N. experts have described as a civil war. State-run MRTV television broadcast an announcement imposing martial law in 37 townships across eight of the country’s 14 regions and states. Many of the townships are in areas in the northwest where fighting has been fiercest between the army and pro-democracy guerrillas and their allies in ethnic minority militias. Myanmar was plunged into crisis in February 2021 when the army’s ouster of an elected government was met with widespread protests.