A child was injured as junta planes bombarded a village in Sagaing Region on Wednesday, an attack that came despite the fact there had been no clashes there, two local residents said.
The child was hit in the foot by shrapnel and taken to hospital, and may need to have the foot amputated, a man from Moe Dar Gyi in Katha Township told Myanmar Now. He was unable to provide further details.
Three fighter jets dropped around 20 bombs and fired machine guns during the raid, destroying a house and a barn and destroying to the roofs of at least five other houses, the 40-year-old local man added.
“They have attacked Moe Dar Lay before,” he said, referring to a village some five miles from Moe Dar Gyi where there was a clash with resistance forces in November. “Three of the jets came here despite there being no clashes in the area.”
Locals assume that the fighter jets came from the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, where the military has an airbase. Katha sits at Sagaing’s border with Kachin, which has become a center of guerilla activity against the junta recently.
The jets hovered above the village and then took turns to drop bombs, the man said.
Some of the bombs that landed in the village did not detonate, and villagers are extremely worried that they may yet explode, a woman who lives in the village told Myanmar Now.
Moe Dar Gyi has around 800 houses and is located at the border between Sagaing and Kachin.
Resistance groups at the border have intercepted junta forces transporting reinforcements, weapons and ammunition in recent months.
Four siblings aged between five and 15, as well as a woman in her 50s, were killed when the military bombed the village of Gahe in Indaw Township on January 4.
