Rebel attack kills 19 in eastern Myanmar

The Ta'ang National Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for an attack on a town in eastern Myanmar that left 19 people dead.

Eighteen civilians and a policeman have been killed in Myanmar's eastern Shan State when an ethnic armed group attacked a town, the government says.

About 32 people, including 27 civilians, three policemen and two local paramilitary forces were injured in the attack on Saturday morning, which was led by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) on Muse town, a major border crossing with China.

Of the 18 civilians killed in the attack, 16 were men and two were women, government spokesperson Zaw Htay said.

The TNLA claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Facebook, saying it was a response to recent army offensives against another armed group, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

The KIA, one of Myanmar's most powerful ethnic minority armed groups, has regularly clashed with the Myanmar army since a ceasefire broke down in 2011.

The country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, made ending Myanmar's multiple civil wars a priority when her National League for Democracy won landslide elections in 2015, ending five decades of military rule.