{"id":70607,"date":"2025-03-31T17:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T08:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2025\/mar\/31\/girl-sniper-resistance-fighting-on-the-frontline-of-myanmars-civil-war"},"modified":"2025-03-31T17:00:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T08:00:43","slug":"i-stopped-counting-after-three-the-girl-sniper-fighting-on-the-frontline-of-myanmars-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=70607","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I stopped counting after three\u2019: the \u2018girl sniper\u2019 fighting on the frontline of Myanmar\u2019s civil war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The country\u2019s drawn out conflict has seen children recruited as soldiers on all sides. At the age of 18, Anina is a seasoned fighter with a feared reputation in her all-male resistance unit<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Photographs by Valeria Mongelli<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anina is, in many ways, a typical teenager. She loves her boyfriend, cartoons and football \u2013 she supports Manchester City. Until recently, TikTok dancing brightened her days. \u201cAny kind of dancing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>When the Guardian met her she was about to turn 18 and was on crutches, her ankle twisted during a scramble to escape a Myanmar military airstrike. A soldier of the Chin militia, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2025\/jan\/31\/myanmar-military-coup-anniversary\">four years of civil war<\/a> against the ruling junta have consumed much of Anina\u2019s adolescence.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2025\/mar\/31\/girl-sniper-resistance-fighting-on-the-frontline-of-myanmars-civil-war\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The country\u2019s drawn out conflict has seen children recruited as soldiers on all sides. At the age of 18, Anina is a seasoned fighter with a feared reputation in her all-male resistance unitPhotographs by Valeria MongelliAnina is, in many ways, a typica&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[87,59,82,1906,61,617,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-and-arms","category-global-development","category-myanmar","category-myanmar-coup","category-south-and-central-asia","category-womens-rights-and-gender-equality","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70608,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70607\/revisions\/70608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}