Burmese government admits airstrikes on rebels Clashes in Kachin, along with communal unrest in western Rakhine state, have cast a shadow over Myanmar's widely praised emergence from decades of army rule. KIO deputy chief of foreign affairs Colonel James Lum Dau said that the fighting in Kachin had become "more serious" since last week, adding that it was concentrated in an area about seven miles (11 kilometres) from the rebel headquarters in Laiza on the Chinese border. "Before they (attacked) with helicopters, now they are using jets with rockets and bombs," he said. A close observer of the situation, who asked not to be named, said there had been a "marked escalation" in fighting. They are firing a lot from helicopter gunships and using heavy artillery. It has been very close to the KIO headquarters," he said. Civil war has gripped parts of Myanmar since independence from Britain in 1948. Myanmar's new quasi-civilian government has reached tentative ceasefires with most of the country's other major ethnic rebel groups, but several rounds of talks aimed at resolving the conflict in the country's far north have shown little tangible progress. Government spokesman Zaw Htay, who declined to give details of the latest fighting, said the Kachin rebels had not responded to an invitation for further dialogue. The UN recently appealed to Myanmar to stop blocking aid to tens of thousands of displaced people in rebel-held territory in Kachin.