Myanmar Troops Storm Protest Camp Wednesday Killing, Wounding Several

Myanmar troops stormed an anti-coup protest camp Wednesday in a pre-dawn operation that local news reports said killed and wounded several demonstrators.

Anti-coup activists continue to defy a bloody crackdown and internet blockade by the ruling junta.

Myanmar has been in chaos since a Feb. 1 coup that ended a brief period of civilian-led democracy and sparked nationwide protests and strikes, despite the ruling military's use of lethal force to quell the resistance.

Violence erupted as troops entered the protest site Wednesday in the town of Kale in the Saigang region, a hotspot of unrest, where demonstrators were demanding the restoration of Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, a resident told Reuters.

News outlets quoted witnesses saying there were injuries and deaths and repeated gunfire. Mizzima news said three people were killed and posted pictures on Facebook of a fire burning near parked vehicles and soldiers with rifles in the street.

The mostly youth-led movement's ability to organize anti-coup campaigns and share information via social media and instant messaging has been severely hampered by curbs on broadband wireless internet and mobile data services.

Fixed-line services, which few in Myanmar have access to, are still available.

"Myanmar has been subject to a stepwise collapse into the information abyss since February," Alp Toker, founder of internet blockage observatory NetBlocks told Reuters Wednesday. "Communications are now severely limited and available only to the few."

With print media also halted, protesters have sought workarounds to get their message across, producing their own daily news pamphlets that are shared digitally and printed for distribution among the public.

On Tuesday, remnants of Suu Kyi's administration said in a statement it would be submitting evidence of military atrocities to different United Nations human rights bodies.

Some 581 people, including dozens of children, have been shot dead by troops and police in almost daily unrest since the coup, and security forces have arrested close to 3,500 people, with 2,750 still detained, according to advocacy group the Association for Political Prisoners.

Arrest warrants have been issued for hundreds of people, with the junta this week going after scores of influencers, entertainers, artists and musicians.

The country's most famous comedian, Zarganar, was arrested Tuesday, local media reported.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab discussed how Britain and the international community could support a Southeast Asian effort to resolve the crisis in Myanmar, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Wednesday, after meeting her British counterpart in Jakarta.

Indonesia is among several Southeast Asian countries leading a push for high-level regional talks on Myanmar.

Western countries including the United States, Britain and Australia have imposed or tightened sanctions on the generals and the military's huge network of business monopolies in response to the coup, detentions and use of lethal force against demonstrators.

The European Union is expected to follow suit.

Russia, which has shown support for Myanmar's ruling military council, Tuesday said the West risked triggering civil war in the country by imposing sanctions on the military junta.

Fitch Solutions in a report issued Wednesday said targeted Western sanctions alone were unlikely to succeed in restoring democracy. It predicted in the medium-term a violent revolution between the military on one side and an armed opposition composed of members of the anti-coup movement and ethic militias.

Fitch said Myanmar was heading toward being a failed state.

"The escalating violence on civilians and ethnic militias show that the Tatmadaw is increasingly losing control of the country," it said.