Civilians killed by shelling, bombing on Ayeyarwady’s banks as military flotilla navigates upriver

At least 11 civilians have been killed and more have been injured by junta airstrikes and shelling from a military flotilla and its aerial escort in Sagaing Region since Sunday, according to local and resistance sources. Nine civilians were killed on Sunday when a junta warplane carried out two airstrikes at a local nickel processing plant and in Maung Kone village, Tigyaing Township, according to a source connected to the resistance. He added that a dozen more civilians were injured. “At least nine people including a pregnant woman lost their lives as two bombs landed on restaurants in a crowded area of the village,” the source said. Due to breakdowns in phone and internet communications from Sagaing Region, identifying details about the victims are still unavailable. On the same day as the Tigyaing airstrikes, a military flotilla on the Ayeyarwady River—escorted by junta fighter jets for security—docked near the Mya Thein Tan hilltop pagoda, a position held by the junta in Tigyaing Township. Local sources claimed the same junta fighter jet that had accompanied the flotilla carried out the two airstrikes in Maung Kone. Junta troops continue to hold at least three outposts on high ground in Tigyaing Township, with the riverside town serving as a crucial intermediate point on the junta’s route for transporting supplies and reinforcements in Upper Myanmar. Local sources also confirmed that anti-regime forces hold approximately half the territory in Tigyaing Township’s urban area, as well as most of the rural villages in the township. Maung Kone, located on the east bank of the river opposite Tigyaing, has been under the control of anti-regime forces for nearly a month, according to locals. The day after the airstrikes, the junta vessels in the flotilla continued to navigate upriver towards the town of Katha, located some 35 miles north of Tigyaing. The escort plane carried out intermittent airstrikes while the boats shelled the riverbanks as they progressed. At least two people were killed in Katha Township on Monday when shells fired from the junta’s boats landed in several villages on the Ayeyarwady’s banks, according to a resident of the township. “One villager in Ka Lon and another one from Nyaung Chay Htauk were killed by the artillery on the military’s boats,” the Katha Township resident said. Locals said that a few boats moored near Ka Lon village were also damaged by the shelling. At least ten more people were injured in Katha Township as the military boats conducted shelling, the Katha Township resident said. No civilian casualties from junta aerial assaults have been reported in Katha Township. The flotilla arrived in Katha at around 2pm on Monday, according to locals. The military has struggled to maintain a strategic foothold this year in Katha Township’s rural areas, which have been a stronghold for the resistance since the beginning of 2024.

Civilians killed by shelling, bombing on Ayeyarwady’s banks as military flotilla navigates upriver

Military boats fired on the riverbanks as they progressed, while a junta warplane escorting the vessels carried out airstrikes, one of which killed nine people in a crowded village

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