Eight civilians killed in junta airstrikes on Sagaing’s Taze and Pale Townships

Eight civilians were killed and at least nine others injured in junta airstrikes on villages in Taze and Pale townships in Sagaing Region, according to local resistance forces. A junta aircraft bombed Kanhtuma village in Taze Township around 1am on November 24, killing six civilians and injuring four. The strike hit an old hospital building and a car repair shop about 10 miles west of Taze town, killing workers and drivers inside, a local resident said.The military also launched an airstrike on Hpomoeik village, in the western hills of Pale township around 10am on November 23, killing two people and injuring five others. Sources say a woman in her 60s and a five-year-old girl were killed, while five others were injured.“They dropped the bombs on the old hospital’s X-ray department and on the car repair shop behind it,” a local resident said. “They’re right next to each other, just separated by a road. The people who were killed were workers from the repair shop—the building used to be a hospital, but it hasn’t operated as one in years.” The eight civilians who were killed were from Taze, Monywa, and Pinlebu townships. The Kanhtuma attack is the second mass-casualty airstrike in two months on densely populated Kanhtuma village along the Kalaywa–Taze–Monywa road. In late September, a junta aircraft dropped two bombs on local grocery shops-–killing six men and two women and injuring 12 others.U Zaw Htet, an official of the Township People's Administration Organization operated under the National Unity Government (NUG), said the amount of airstrikes taking place is highly concerning. Pale Township borders the Pone Taung–Pone Nyar area of Magway, with junta troops holding the town and a few nearby villages, while resistance forces control most rural areas. Junta airstrikes have intensified nationwide over the last year, becoming one of the regime’s primary tactics as it loses ground to resistance forces. Warplanes routinely target villages, displacement camps, clinics and schools, causing mass civilian casualties across Sagaing, Chin, Kachin and other states and regions. Although there have been no recent ground offensives or battles inside Pale, junta forces are conducting aerial surveillance, with the threat of bombings always looming, a local resident told Myanmar Now. "There are paramotors flying every day,” a Pale resident said. “Even if not in the Pale Town area itself, in areas around Pale and remote locations, aerial bombings happen frequently.” Junta forces have intensified ground offensives and carried out consecutive airstrikes across central Myanmar, including Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway, and in Chin State since last month, in an effort to claw back territorial control. NUG data shows the junta launched more than 250 airstrikes in October, with Mandalay, Sagaing and Magway hit the hardest. The strikes killed 185 people and wounded more than 500—figures that show just how staggering the human toll has become.

Eight civilians killed in junta airstrikes on Sagaing’s Taze and Pale Townships

The bombings are the latest in a series of strikes on Sagaing Region, where junta aircraft have repeatedly targeted populated areas and transport corridors

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