Official of Burma's Central Bank shot

BANGKOK — A deputy governor of Burma’s Central Bank was shot at her home on Thursday, less than a week after new regulations were issued ordering that foreign money held in bank accounts in the military-ruled nation must be exchanged for the local currency.

There were conflicting accounts of whether Than Than Swe, appointed to her post after the military seized power, survived the attack.

She is believed to be the most senior official associated with the military-run administration to be shot since February last year, when the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that ruling military authorities adopted in 1989. Opposition leader Suu Kyi and other regime opponents have refused to adopt the name change, as have the U.S. and Britain.

Than Than Swe was shot by two men when she opened the door to her apartment in Bahan township in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, said Thet Oo, a local official. He said she was taken to a military hospital where she was confirmed dead, but a report by the U.S. government-backed Radio Free Asia cited a military spokesman as saying she was being treated for her wounds.

A militant group called the Yangon Region Military Command, which pledges allegiance to the National Unity Government, the main opposition organization, posted a statement on its Facebook page taking responsibility for the attack on Than Than Swe.

It claimed to have carried out 1,128 attacks from September, when the National Unity Government announced it was launching attacks on the military. It said its attacks resulted in 253 deaths and 300 injuries.

The National Unity Government has in the past tended to distance itself from attacks on civilians that could be characterized as terrorism.