Child, displaced people among 18 killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes in Rakhine State

Regime forces’ airstrikes killed at least 18 civilians including displaced people and a child this week in three Rakhine State townships where the junta has lost control of territory, according to locals and members of the Arakan Army (AA). The AA—Rakhine State’s largest and most powerful ethnic armed group—has been capturing territory from the Myanmar military regime’s forces since resuming offensive operations against the junta in November of last year. According to the group’s spokesperson Khaing Thukha, junta aircraft bombed urban wards in Thandwe in southern Rakhine State at around 8am on Wednesday. Two bombs each fell and detonated at Thandwe’s City Hall and Environmental Conservation Office, Khaing Thukha said, killing 14 internally displaced persons (IDPs) sheltering at the City Hall and injuring at least 25 people in total at both sites. “There were mostly children and elderly people among those killed. The injured have been sent to the hospital,” Khaing Thukha said, adding the accusation that the military had committed a war crime in targeting places where defenceless civilians were sheltering. There had been no casualties among the AA’s fighters from the airstrikes, according to a local civilian woman. She added that people in the area were profoundly saddened by the civilians’ deaths. “We are deeply upset and heartbroken that they directly targeted the innocent IDPs in the camp,” she said. A child injured by junta airstrikes in Thandwe (Photo: Supplied) Attack during the Sabbath The previous day at around 4pm, another deadly junta airstrike occurred in the town of Kanhtauntkyi, Myebon Township some 100 miles north of Thandwe and 60 miles southeast of the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe. Bombs fell in four different locations in the city, according to local civilians, killing or injuring displaced people as well as religious practitioners observing the Buddhist Sabbath. The junta air force struck Ywar Thar Yar Ward, the northern monastery, another monastery, and a recently developed “new village” area, locals said. An 11-year-old child and a 38-year-old were killed in the attacks, according to local sources, while another 11-year-old and six adults between 48 and 80 sustained injuries serious enough to require hospitalisation. The military’s execution of a bombing raid on a Buddhist Sabbath day was at odds with junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing’s public self-presentation as a patron of Buddhist religious practice and frequent, personal promotion of new pagoda and monastery construction projects. A relative of one of the people injured in the attacks recalled that two junta planes had circled over the town before bombing and strafing the IDP camp and monastery compound. “We had to lie flat at the IDP camp. Some people were running. The planes kept circling overhead. It was terrifying. They fired machine guns first, then circled back again and dropped large bombs,” she said. She added a 72-year-old relative of hers had been injured by machine gun fire from a junta plane while returning to the IDP camp from the monastery. Another resident of the ward believed the junta was aiming for the police station and electric utility office, but missed and hit the nearby monasteries and civilian homes by accident. “After the first pass, people came out of the monastery thinking the attack was over. As they came out, it seemed to be targeting the electricity office,” he said, referring to the junta warplane. “But it missed and hit the monastery instead. It happened when people were coming out. The people tried to lie face-down but some couldn’t escape.” Building damaged by junta airstrikes in Taungup Township on September 24 (Photo: Tan Hlwe Htar Ni) ‘We don’t know what to expect’ Two days earlier, the junta air force bombed the town of Tan Hlwe Ywar Ma in Rakhine State’s Taungup Township at around 8pm, killing two civilians and injuring three, according to locals, who said that a third-year physics student was among the dead. The injured were transported to Taungup Township Hospital, according to a resident of Taungup citing accounts from residents of Tan Hlwe Ywar Ma. “Bombs were dropped in front of the Ywar Ma police station and near the market on Tuesday. One bomb fell into the creek at Shwe Pyi Thar ferry port but did not explode, while another fell near the creek bank and burned a house to the ground. Five bombs were dropped altogether,” he said. “Bombs were dropped in two locations, but only one explosion was heard,” said another resident of a nearby village, citing accounts from people who had inspected where the bombs landed. “The bomb that fell in Tan Hlwe Ywar Ma landed very close to a residential neighbourhood, injuring a man who lives nearby,” the villager said. “A monk at a monastery in Ywar Thar Yar village was also injured, and a student in Shwe Pyi Thar was killed. Additionally, a child lost a hand, and another child who was struck in the head by shrapnel is now hospitalised, with people saying survival is uncertain,” he added. Myanmar Now tried to speak to more area residents for information about the incident but was unable to reach any after 9:30am on Wednesday because of telephone service disruptions. The Tan Hlwe Ywar Ma police station approximately 14 miles from Taungup has been undefended for months. Police left their posts shortly after fighting broke out between junta forces and the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State in November 2023. Aftermath of airstrikes in Thandwe, Rakhine State (Photo: Supplied) In the absence of junta personnel, areas of the town have effectively come under the control of the AA. Although the military council initially continued to supply electricity to villages in Taungup Township, power has been cut since September 20, when AA members instructed utility workers not to bill residents for electricity for the month. Knowing that the junta often resorts to airstrikes in towns and villages where they have lost control, locals are living in fear for their lives. Although Taungup Township is calm at the moment, a resident said local civilians fear that fighting could break out again at any time. “When I say I’m worried, I mean I’m deeply afraid. We had to escape from the fighting by fleeing to a rural area before. Now we don’t know what to expect in the city either,” she said. The Myanmar junta has intensified airstrikes in territory lost to its opponents, including areas captured since last year by the AA in Rakhine State and by its allies in northern Shan State over months of coordinated offensive operations against regime forces. According to information compiled by Myanmar Now, in September alone junta airstrikes have killed approximately 90 civilians and at least 57 prisoners of war in Rakhine State. The AA has now captured 10 of the state’s 17 townships from junta forces: Myebon, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Ramree (Yanbye), and Thandwe. The armed group also controls Chin State’s Paletwa Township. Fighting is also ongoing in the area around Maungdaw near the Bangladeshi border, and in the vicinity of the town of Kyeintali in Gwa Township, south of Thandwe. Map showing areas under military and Arakan Army (AA) control in Rakhine State

Child, displaced people among 18 killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes in Rakhine State

The people slain or injured in a series of recent attacks by the air force in Rakhine State included children, a monk, displaced people, and religious observers participating in sabbath rituals at a monastery

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