Army Strikes Naga Militant Camps Along Myanmar Border, Inflicts 'Heavy' Damage

New Delhi: The Army on Wednesday struck Naga insurgent camps along the border with Myanmar and caused “heavy damage”.

A team of Indian Para Commandos carried out the strike at 4:45 am and inflicted damage on NSCN-K insurgents close to Langkhu village near the Indo-Myanmar border, said sources to CNN-News18.

A statement by the Eastern Command said the unit did not cross the international border and did not suffer any casualties.

This is the second such strike the Army has carried out along the Myanmar border. In June 2015, the Army had targeted NSCN-K camps days after the group’s militants ambushed and killed 18 Indian soldiers in Manipur.

Wednesday’s strike also coincides with the anniversary of India’s surgical strike on terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the Uri terror attack last year.

Army chief Bipin Rawat had said earlier this week that India may conduct more surgical strikes “if needed”. "The strikes were a message we wanted to communicate. I think they understood what we meant. These things could follow, if required,” he said.

Sources, however, told CNN-News18 that Wednesday’s operation was not a “surgical strike”. “The narrative of today’s operation being a surgical strike is wrong and refuted. The Eastern Command’s tweet truthfully covers the full contours of the operation,” an Army source said.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang abrogated the ceasefire it signed in 2001 with the Indian government, on March 27, 2015, just a month before the truce was up for renewal.

Subsequently, its chief SS Khaplang's rebels went on a killing spree, attacking Indian soldiers in Nagaland and Manipur.

The outfit even mounted the deadly ambush on a convoy of the 6 Dogra Regiment in Manipur's Chandel district on June 4, 2015, in which 18 soldiers were killed.

Khaplang died on June 9 in Taka in Myanmar's Sagaing Division.