Elderly civilians among five killed by junta airstrike in confluence area

Five women living in the confluence area of Yesagyo Township, Magway Region died on Sunday in a bombing raid by the military regime’s air force, according to resistance fighters based in the township. Two junta aircraft dropped a 250-pound bomb around 1:30pm in Nga Ta Yaw village before strafing the ground with machine gun fire in the confluence area, a part of Yesagyo Township where the Chindwin and Ayeyarwady rivers intersect, known as the Yelaekyun in Burmese. The attack injured some 10 villagers in addition to the five fatalities. Most of the casualties occurred when the bomb hit near the centre of the village, according to a member of the Yesagyo Township People’s Defence Organization (PDO), part of the armed resistance commanded by the National Unity Government. The deceased, all women related to or living near each other, ranged in age from 35 to 70. Three were killed instantly, while two died on the way to a treatment facility. The 10 people injured in the attack included an 85-year-old grandmother. The bodies of four women killed in the August 31 airstrike in the confluence area (Yaelekyun) of Yesagyo Township (Photo: Info Committee Yesagyo) Nga Ta Yaw, a village of more than 1,000 households before the military coup of 2021, has been a frequent target of the junta forces since the coup and subsequent lethal crackdown on opponents to military rule. Some 600 houses in the village have been burned down by junta troops, including many destroyed in a junta ground offensive between March and May of this year. Following the arson attacks, residents replaced their burned down homes with temporary shelters near the village centre, almost exactly where the bomb struck on Sunday, according to the Yesagyo Township PDO representatives. “There were no battles. They just came and dropped bombs in broad daylight,” they said. “People from the villages went to the forest in the morning, and at midday, they gathered to talk. The bomb fell right where people were living.” They added that several of those injured in the attack remain in critical condition, including the woman in her 80s. The bodies of the slain Nga Ta Yaw villagers were cremated around 5pm on the day of the attack. More than a dozen people were killed in the confluence area amid junta offensives earlier this year and some 20,000 fled their homes due to the threat of arson and other violence by soldiers overrunning their villages. The junta later claimed in public statements that resistance forces were responsible for the destruction of civilian homes. The confluence area, located not only on two major waterways but also near borders with Sagaing and Mandalay regions, is strategically important for both the military and resistance forces, who maintain active fighting forces in the area. The day before the Nga Ta Yaw airstrike, the junta also conducted a paramotor attack that resulted in civilian casualties elsewhere in Magway Region, some 70 miles to the south in Natmauk Township. The attack killed a 24-year-old woman and severely injured her father, local resistance sources said. A junta airstrike had also killed two children and three other civilians in Natmauk Township the previous Sunday. The military regime has conducted over 900 airstrikes between January and April of this year alone, causing 621 civilian deaths and 1,272 injuries, according to a report released by Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica last month. Victims of the August 30 airstrike

Elderly civilians among five killed by junta airstrike in confluence area

Due to its proximity to two major rivers and to both Sagaing and Mandalay regions, the confluence area (Yaelekyun) in Yesagyo Township is strategically important and a frequent target of indiscriminate attacks by junta forces

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