Junta Continues Crackdown in Myanmar

Shots were fired to clear crowds defying a brutal crackdown in Myanmar Friday as authorities reportedly cut Internet connections and graphic new video footage showed troops using deadly force.

A still from a video released by Myanmarese opposition shows crowds fleeing gunshots in Yangon on Thursday. Witnesses told CNN that police opened fire on crowds to disperse demonstrators resulting in fatalities.

There was no immediate way to confirm the claim. The Associated Press said soldiers clubbed activists in the streets.

A day earlier, troops with automatic rifles fired into crowds of anti-government demonstrators, reportedly killing at least nine people in the bloodiest day in more than a month of protests demanding an end to military rule.

After two days of unrest in Yangon’s streets, Myanmar’s main link to the Internet has stopped working, according to a telecom official who blamed the problem on a damaged cable.

“The Internet is not working because the underwater cable is damaged,” an official with Myanmar Post and Telecoms told AFP on condition of anonymity.

 Myanmar’s Internet service is tightly controlled and only sporadically available even in the best of times, but the military has tightened its controls amid anti-government protests.