Airstrikes north of Mandalay kill four, injure 12

Villages came under attack by the military regime’s air force in Mandalay Region’s Thabeikkyin and Singu townships on Sunday, causing four civilian deaths and around a dozen injuries in a single day, locals and resistance members said. The military launched airstrikes targeting the village of Lan Lel Kyit, Thabeikkyin Township at around 9:30am and the village of Kyauk Hpyar in the same township at around 2pm using Y-12 transport aircraft, and Nagarmauk hill in Singu Township was also struck with fighter aircraft. The latter airstrike, which occurred far from any recent battlegrounds, left four killed and at least 10 injured, according to the Mandalay Region People’s Defence Forces (MDY-PDF).Their names, ages, and details about the conditions of the wounded are not yet known. A junta fighter jet also dropped two bombs on Nagarmauk Hill in Singu Township, injuring two people. “The aircraft were circling overhead all day,” a man from Thabeikkyin Township said. “They dropped bombs using a Y-12 once in the morning, once in the afternoon. One of their fighter jets also went and bombed Singu.” A member of a resistance group giving medical treatment to a Kyauk Hpyar villager injured in an junta airstrike (Photo: MDY-PDF) The Y-12 transport aircraft that bombed Lan Lel Kyit at 9:30am was targeting an area where there had been fighting between junta and resistance forces, he said, adding that it circled a total of four times. “In the morning, we learned they had dropped bombs in Lan Lel Kyit,” a local woman confirmed. “After that first strike, they dropped between three and five more bombs. They circled repeatedly, for a long time. Even though we were far from the strikes, we could hear it distinctly.” Kyauk Hpyar is on the Mandalay-Myitkyina road around two miles southeast of Lan Lel Kyit and nine miles southeast of Thabeikkyin. Nagamauk hill in Singu Township, the target of another airstrike, is some 15 miles away from the nearest battleground in Madaya Township. According to a local resident, the junta also reportedly dropped bombs on the same afternoon in the ruby-mining hub of Mogok, Mandalay Region some 32 miles east of Thabeikkyin, but the bombs did not detonate. The previous day, they also bombed the nearby town of Kyaukme, northern Shan State, with no reported casualties. Both Kyaukme and Mogok, including Mogok’s lucrative gemstone-mining operations, are still under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group fighting against the junta, despite recent attempts by the military to retake it. The junta’s daily airstrikes on territories controlled by resistance and ethnic armed groups often cause civilian casualties and deaths. Bombs from a Y-12 aircraft killed two children and five other civilians in the villages of Kyauk Hpyar and Nyaung Pin Thar in Thabeikkyin Township. State of battle in Thabeikkyin Township The armed resistance has been losing ground amid a counteroffensive by junta forces, which have already recaptured the urban centre of Thabeikkyin Township and advanced east towards Lan Lel Kyit, according to a resistance leader. Amid these reversals for the resistance and ongoing clashes, civilians have been fleeing their homes to escape the worst of the violence, sheltering as best they can in the woods and hills because of the threat of airstrikes in the villages. “We’ve been displaced for over a month now,” said a civilian who had lost a son to drone and aerial attacks. “With drone strikes, airstrikes, and shelling by heavy artillery targeting our village, we had no choice but to flee.” People displaced by war say they have been staying in makeshift tents and shelters assembled from tarpaulins, thatch, bamboo poles, and mangrove posts. The limited aid provided by local resistance forces and donors—consisting of rice and modest funds to buy other food, clothing, and material for shelters—is not sustainable over the long term. Health services are also mostly out of reach, the displaced people said. While the residents of Shwe Hmwe Chaung, Yae Pu Lel Kyin, and Lan Lel Kyit villages are recently displaced, villagers from other areas of the township have been displaced for months, as some Myanmar junta forces in the area initiated counteroffensive operations as early as November of last year. Following a multi-month standoff, the military launched a more coordinated counteroffensive campaign in the township in early August of this year, recapturing Thabeikkyin’s urban wards and advancing to the edge of Lan Lel Kyit by mid-September. A shelter set up by displaced people who were forced to camp in the woods and hills south of Thabeikkyin after fleeing their homes due to the threat of airstrikes (Photo: Moe Oo)

Airstrikes north of Mandalay kill four, injure 12

Airstrikes resulted in four fatalities and around 12 other casualties on Sunday in Thabaikkyin and Singu townships

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