Airstrike after dark kills civilian, injures 6 in southern Rakhine State

A resident of Thandwe Township, Rakhine State was killed and six more were injured including children in a bombing raid by the military regime’s air force on Saturday night, locals said. Although Thandwe Township is currently controlled by the anti-junta group Arakan Army (AA), the regime has previously announced that it plans to hold elections there in December or January, on the same timeline voting is scheduled in most of Myanmar. Junta warplanes initiated the attack at around 8:30pm, according to a local resident, conducting two airstrikes targeting Thandwe’s Ward 4 and killing a 47-year-old man. Two children aged six and 14 as well as four adults ranging from 37 to 53 years old sustained injuries. “We were eating dinner when the bombs hit. When we heard it, we ran out while still eating. They bombed once at around 8:25pm and once ten minutes later,” the local man said. The military regime has not issued any public statement about the bombing raid in Thandwe. Despite the AA’s ongoing control over Thandwe Township, as well as the townships of Ann, Taungup, and Gwa in Rakhine State, the junta-controlled Union Election Commission has announced that they will be among the townships where the regime will hold elections starting in late December. Taungup was also targeted in an airstrike that destroyed a monastery last Friday. Another aerial bombing, which occurred on September 12 at a private school in the village of Tha Yet Ta Pin in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township, killed 20 people, most of whom were schoolchildren. At a press conference in August, AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha said that more than 900 civilians had been killed and more than 1,900 injured in acts perpetrated by the Myanmar military regime since the start of the present conflict in Rakhine State in November 2023. Military authorities had also detained more than 900 people in the same period, he said. The AA took control of 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships as well as the neighbouring Paletwa Township, Chin State during the anti-junta offensive, leaving only the capital, Sittwe, and the townships of Kyaukphyu and Manaung under junta control. Fierce clashes are ongoing outside Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, and elsewhere in the state, according to AA sources, with the junta forces fighting to recapture territory the AA has taken over since 2023.

Airstrike after dark kills civilian, injures 6 in southern Rakhine State

The military has announced plans to hold elections in Thandwe Township where the bombing took place, as well as several other Rakhine State townships where the anti-junta armed group Arakan Army is currently in control

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