At least nine civilians were killed when a junta fighter jet bombed a town in northern Chin State’s Falam Township on Monday morning, according to local sources.
The incident occurred at around 11am, when the jet dropped two bombs on a high school in Webula, a high-elevation town located in a mountainous area on Chin State’s border with Sagaing Region, the sources said.
The school was not open at the time of the attack, but the principal and his wife, as well as seven others, were confirmed dead. An unknown number of people were also injured.
The town is under the control of the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF), an armed group formed in the wake of Myanmar’s February 2021 coup. However, the group claimed that none of its members were stationed at the school.
According to a local resident who spoke on condition of anonymity, Webula has been attacked by regime forces three times over the past year.
A spokesperson for the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO), a group that has been monitoring the conflict in Chin State, said that no fighting had been reported near Webula prior to the airstrike.
“There were no ground military operations [near Webula],” CHRO spokesperson Salai Mang Hre Lian told Myanmar Now early Monday afternoon.
However, hours before Webula was targeted, resistance forces mounted an assault on a junta outpost in Var, a village located on the western bank of the Manipur River about 5km north of the town of Falam.
The CNDF claimed that 16 junta troops were killed in that attack, which took place at around 5am. The outpost was then burned down and a number of weapons were seized, the group added.
In retaliation, the military carried out six airstrikes over the course of about an hour, according to CNDF spokesperson Cung Ngai.
He added, however, that he thought it was unlikely the two incidents were connected.
“I don’t think the two attacks are related. The locations are far apart. I assume the terrorist military council just attacked Webula for no reason,” he said.
Information about the attacks on Webula and Var could not be independently confirmed.
Since seizing power more than two years ago, Myanmar’s military has carried out numerous indiscriminate attacks, including shelling and airstrikes, on civilian targets.
On March 30, junta airstrikes killed nine civilians in Khuafo, a village near the Chin State town of Thantlang, which is about 35km southwest of Falam.
Salai Bo Bo contributed to this report.
