The Myanmar government said Thursday that its troops had launched a counter-attack on the ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) after the armed group disrupted their normal movement.
The statement was in response to KIA's claim earlier in the day that the government troops had staged the attack Wednesday morning, Xinhua reported citing the Myanmar Radio and TV.
It said KIA had carried out an artillery attack on government soldiers when they were building roads with bulldozers to transport food. The government forces returned fire, resulting in casualties of the KIA side.
KIA had claimed that a total of 23 trainees were killed and 20 others injured in the government forces' artillery attack on a KIA training centre near Laiza in the northernmost Kachin state Wednesday.
Shells fell on a school, 5 km northeast of Laiza, at around noon, the KIA said.
Laiza is also the headquarters of the KIA, a rebel group in Kachin state, which is demanding for greater autonomy and respect for their ethnic rights.
