Five killed in junta airstrike on civilians’ shops in Magway Region

The Myanmar air force bombed a row of roadside shops on Tuesday morning in Magway Region’s Pauk Township, killing five civilians including two teenagers, according to locals and resistance sources. The targeted shops were near the village of Chet Kan on the Pathein-Monya road, a major highway running through the township—which is currently controlled by the armed resistance—and linking Magway Region with Sagaing, Bago, and Ayeyarwady regions. Three adult women, a 19-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl were killed when junta warplanes made three passes over the area, dropping bombs that also damaged nearby houses, locals said. “The bombs landed on some small shops with civilians inside,” said a man connected with resistance groups based in the township. “Before the airstrikes that day, paramotors had already dropped some explosives in the vicinity of Chet Kan village.”Three women and a man were also injured in the attack, which took place at around 10:48am. Rescuers help move an elderly victim of the midmorning attack on Tuesday in Pauk Township (Photo: Supplied) Magway is home to most of the Myanmar military-owned armament factories, operating under the Directorate of Defence Industries (DI). The site of the attack is around 14 miles north of the DI No. 22 factory in neighbouring Seikphyu Township. Another facility, the DI No. 24 factory, is in Pauk Township around six miles west of the urban centre. No clashes had been reported anywhere in the township at the time of the attack, locals said, but columns of junta soldiers had been active near the DI No. 24 factory. Because the Myanmar military relies on its air supremacy to weaken its adversaries’ hold on territory, airstrikes on the areas controlled by the armed resistance in Pauk Township have been frequent. “We are always on the alert because we live in a danger zone,” a man from the township said. “Every house or shop has a bomb shelter in our area but aircraft fly overhead so often that sometimes people treat it as normal and don’t expect to be hit.” Two days before the airstrikes off the Pathein-Monywa road, a warplane attacked a monastery in Nyaung Oak village in neighbouring Myaing Township, injuring a monk. The military regime controls Pauk Township’s urban centre and several villages held by pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militias, while the surrounding rural areas remain under resistance control, the prevailing situation across Magway Region.

Five killed in junta airstrike on civilians’ shops in Magway Region

Although resistance forces remain strong in the region and have been targeting supply routes for junta armaments factories, there had reportedly been no recent fighting near where the attack occurred

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