Airstrikes on schools kill at least seven in western Myanmar

Junta airstrikes targeting schools in Sagaing Region and Rakhine State killed at least seven people and injured more than 20 others over the weekend, according to local sources. On Saturday, two bombs dropped on a school in the village of Min Taing Pin in Sagaing’s Pale Township left two people dead and four others injured, a resident of the area told Myanmar Now. “A man in his 70s, a retired teacher, died of a head injury. An elderly woman in her 60s who lived nearby also died of shock,” the source said. “The bombs landed directly on the school. It was only about 300 meters from where I was standing,” he added. Min Taing Pin is located about eight miles west of the town of Pale on the road to Gangaw in neighbouring Magway Region. It is also less than five miles northeast of Kant Daunt, a village where resistance forces have been attacking a junta outpost since June 2. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, regime jet fighters carried out simultaneous airstrikes on two other nearby villages, Kyet Yin and Padauk Kone, killing an elderly woman and injuring eight others, according to a member of the local National Unity Government (NUG) administration. “A bomb exploded inside a school compound and another landed just outside, near the school in Kyet Yin,” the administrator said, identifying the deceased as a woman in her 70s. Two bombs landed on a cattle farm near Padauk Kone, but no civilian casualties were reported. The attacks come as the regime steps up its efforts to reinforce its positions in the area, including the outpost at Kant Daunt, which is one of just four junta bases still operating in Pale Township. Locals say the military has been deploying Mi-17 helicopters to bring troops into the area, which is about 35 miles southwest of the junta’s Northwestern Regional Military Command headquarters in the Sagaing capital Monywa. The ongoing clashes and junta aerial assaults have reportedly displaced at least 10,000 people in both Pale Township and adjacent areas of Myaing Township in Magway Region. Meanwhile, airstrikes carried out in Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township on Saturday killed four displaced people and injured 10 others sheltering at two local schools, sources there reported. The attacks, which took place at around 10pm, targeted the high school in the village of Kyaukgyi and the primary school in Pu Zun Hpay, another village in the area, the sources said. Four people were killed and eight others were severely injured in Kyaukgyi, while at least two people were injured in Pu Zun Hpay. Thandwe Township is under the control of the Arakan Army (AA), and is frequently targeted by regime airstrikes, according to a local resident who assists people displaced by the conflict. “We’re constantly worried about when bombs might fall. We can’t eat properly or sleep well. Even though we live in a liberated territory and everything else is free, we’re still very afraid of the aircraft threat,” he said. The AA has seized 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, as well as Paletwa Township in Chin State. It has also declared its intention to completely capture and control Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, and Manaung townships, which the junta continues to control in Rakhine State. Currently, fighting is occurring in Kyaukphyu Township, with battles taking place around the military junta’s Police Battalion 32, where the AA has seized several nearby outposts. On May 30, the AA took a number of junta troops prisoner, including a division commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Three days earlier, AA snipers killed Brig-Gen Kyaw Myo Aung, the tactical operations officer of Light Infantry Division 11, and another junta officer, according to local news outlet Narinjara.

Airstrikes on schools kill at least seven in western Myanmar

The attacks are the latest by the regime targeting schools and other public buildings in areas controlled by resistance forces

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