Myanmar arrests 16 suspects, including XNUMX-year-old girl, over assassination plot

Myanmar security forces have arrested a six-year-old girl along with 15 other people suspected of involvement in the assassination of a retired high-ranking military officer, state media reported today.

General Choe Tun Aung was shot dead outside his home in Yangon on May 22. Choe Tun Aung's assassination is the latest attack on figures linked to the ruling military junta since Myanmar descended into civil war after the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Sixteen suspects - 13 men and three women - were arrested in four different regions between May 23 and 29, state media reported. Among those arrested was the alleged killer's six-year-old daughter, Myo Ko Ko, who is said to have had at least three other aliases.

Among those detained is the owner of a private hospital that is alleged to have provided treatment to the attacker who said he suffered a gunshot wound during the attack.

The militant group Golden Valley Warriors, which claimed responsibility, said that Chho Tun Aung taught internal security and counterterrorism at Myanmar's National Defense College and that as such he was complicit in what the group called crimes committed during the ongoing civil war.

The ruling military junta has already been accused by the international community of human rights violations on a far larger scale, including the bombing of entire villages that caused the deaths of several civilians.