January 15, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 14, 1426

GUWAHATI, Jan 14: Fifteen Myanmar soldiers and six Indian insurgents died and dozens were seriously wounded in heavy fighting to evict the Naga rebels, a separatist leader said on Saturday.

“So far we have killed 15 Myanmar soldiers and lost six of our cadres,” rebel leader Kughalo Mulatonu said by telephone from a location near the India-Myanmar border where the offensive took place this week.

“It is no longer mere fighting but a full-scale battle with the junta using mortars and heavy weapons on us,” said Mulatonu, who heads the main faction of the separatist National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).

The group is fighting for an independent tribal homeland in India’s north-eastern state of Nagaland. It claims to have some 50 camps and 7,000 rebels in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing Division, which borders Nagaland.

There was no independent confirmation of the clashes from the Myanmar or Indian authorities.

Last month, Myanmar, also known as Burma, launched a major crackdown backed by some 3,500 government soldiers to evict the rebels. The group claimed they lost three rebels and two camps in the swoop.

In the latest fighting, which began last Saturday, the group said Myanmar soldiers had destroyed 50 temporary shelters housing around 500 rebels.

Mulatonu said he feared Myanmar was planning a massive strafing operation with helicopter gunships on their camps but added that his men were ready with heavy machineguns.

Besides the Nagaland rebel faction, at least four other guerrilla groups from India’s northeast — where numerous ethnic groups have taken up arms to demand greater autonomy or independence — have training camps in northern Myanmar’s jungles.

Myanmar has repeatedly assured New Delhi that the junta would not let Indian rebels operate from its soil.

Myanmar, which shares a 1,640-km unfenced border with India, said last year that its troops had killed at least 20 rebels, most of them from the Nagaland faction in the same area.—AFP