Myanmar s forgotten coup morphing into civil war
Thousands of civilians, including children, have fled to remote areas to escape the violence
Demonstrators on motorcycles gesture during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay
At first, the hotch-potch militia of Myanmar s forgotten youth scored unlikely success against Myanmar s powerful military junta, raiding convoys and killing several soldiers with rifles and homemade grenades.
But the self-declared Chinland Defence Force, one of a handful new guerilla forces to rise from the ashes of this year s coup, were soon forced to flee into the jungle.
Regime soldiers, high on methamphetamine and using civilians as human shields, deployed attack helicopters and ground forces to ransack the guerilla s northern town of Mindat, the latest frontline outpost in what is turning into an ugly civil war.