Two civilians were killed on Tuesday when army units based in Wuntho, Sagaing Region shelled the neighbouring town of Kawlin, officials of the people’s administration and anti-junta shadow government said.
According to the people’s administration team of Kawlin District and other anti-regime officials, six heavy artillery shells fired by a junta battalion based in Wuntho, some five miles north of Kawlin, landed near the Ashay Market at around 8am that morning, resulting in injuries to seven civilians as well as two deaths.
Myanmar Now has yet to confirm the details of the victims’ identities.
The publicly mandated, shadow National Unity Government (NUG)—formed and endorsed by ousted elected officials in opposition to the 2021 military coup—has assigned administrative personnel to most of Kawlin’s wards since anti-junta armed forces succeeded in capturing the town in early November.
“The NUG administration is already operational in seven out of eight urban wards,” NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said.
Anti-junta fighters, including members of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the People’s Defence Forces (PDF)—the latter of which operates as the armed wing of the NUG—have held full control of Kawlin since taking over the town two months ago.
However, the NUG-affiliated administrators have had to move Kawlin’s schools and medical facilities out of harm’s way due to constant shelling by junta forces stationed within few miles of the town since last month.
“We have relocated the schools to safer places. We are also running two hospitals and several rural clinics,” Nay Bhone Latt said.
Light infantry battalions 111, 120, and 309, all based in Wuntho, have been using heavy artillery to shell the town relentlessly for days, causing damage to residential and religious buildings and a series of civilian casualties.
Last Friday, the Wuntho-based battalions’ shells damaged a monastery and houses on the outskirts of Kawlin, killing a man named Kyaw Win, 66, as well as a two-year-old and an eight-year-old.
Two days earlier, a junta airstrike on Gyoe Gyar U village, some 12 miles east of Kawlin, injured two civilians.
The military is also stopping trucks at a checkpoint in Koe Pin, Shwebo Township, to cut off supplies of food and other essentials to Pinlebu, Wuntho, Kawlin, and other towns in Kawlin District with a strong presence of armed resistance forces.
While most displaced inhabitants of Kawlin have reportedly returned, some have been forced to flee again since late December, when army battalions at nearby bases began to fire on the town.
Since the launch of Operation 1027 by the Brotherhood Alliance of anti-junta ethnic armed groups in October, anti-regime fighters have succeeded in capturing towns in Sagaing Region and Chin and Karenni States, as well as in Shan State where the operation began.
Anti-junta forces have now succeeded in taking and maintaining full control of eleven towns in northern Shan State, three in Chin State, and three in Sagaing Region without relinquishing captured ground to the military.
