After retaking Kyaukme, Myanmar military bombs Namtu, Manton

One day after its forces recaptured the town of Kyaukme from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) on Wednesday, the Myanmar military has carried out air raids targeting two other TNLA-controlled towns in northern Shan State. Three people were killed and six were injured when a warplane bombed a residential ward in the town of Namtu, some 43 miles north of Kyaukme. On the same morning a junta warplane also reportedly dropped four bombs on Manton, less than 20 miles northwest of Namtu in northern Shan State. The bombs struck an abandoned junta base, and no civilian casualties have been reported. Manton is the second-largest town in the Palaung Self-Administered Zone, an area designated for self-rule by the Ta’ang people—also known as the Palaung—in the military-drafted 2008 constitution of Myanmar. Most of the TNLA’s membership is ethnically Ta’ang. A resident of Namtu, a township known for its silver, zinc, and nickel mining, described the Thursday morning airstrikes and their effects. “It was not that far from my house, and I heard the blast at around 7:20am this morning,” she said on Thursday. “A man in his 70s and his daughter died at the scene and many others were also injured by the assault.” Another woman wounded in the airstrike was later confirmed to have died from her injuries while undergoing treatment. Still image from a video clip that circulated online after the airstrike, showing a slain victim’s family in Namtu mourning his death (Supplied). The bombs landed near a monastery in Namtu’s Ward 8, damaging at least five houses, according to local civilians. Video footage posted on social media showed people standing and crouching amid rubble and debris, with some crying next to what appeared to be an elderly man’s body covered by a blanket, with evident damage from a bomb blast. Six people including one child were also injured in the attack, and another child was still unaccounted for, according to the local advocacy group Ta’ang Women Organisation. “At least two men and three women sustained injuries. One boy was also hurt, and another child is still missing,” a representative of the group told Myanmar Now. Some of the injured and deceased were reportedly residents of Nawng Ping village in Kyaukme Township, who had fled to escape advancing junta troops. The junta’s aerial assaults on Namtu and Manton came a day after junta troops seized control of Kyaukme from the TNLA. The Ta’ang armed group had held the town of Kyaukme, located on an important trade route linking central Myanmar with the Chinese border, since August 2024. Inhabited mostly by people of Shan, Ta’ang, and Bamar ethnicity, Namtu Township shares borders with Lashio Township to the east, Namhsan Township to the west, Hsipaw Township to the south, and Manton Township to the north. The TNLA captured Namtu in December 2023 during the first phase of Operation 1027, a large-scale offensive campaign against the military launched in coordination with the Ta’ang group’s allies. Residents of the township were wary of further potential attacks following the airstrike, and many shops as well as the morning market in Namtu closed. “Everyone is frightened, as it’s the first time the town has been hit by an airstrike. The town had been peaceful since it was taken over by the Ta’ang army,” a woman from Namtu said. “The children stayed home from school today.” A man was wounded in another town controlled by the TNLA—the gemstone-mining hub of Mogok, Mandalay Region—when it was hit by a junta airstrike on Wednesday.

After retaking Kyaukme, Myanmar military bombs Namtu, Manton

The airstrikes, which resulted in targeted two townships held by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) Manton in the Palaung Self-Administered Zone and Namtu, known for its mines

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