Junta bombs eastern Chindwin River villages in attempt to prevent resistance advances in Sagaing, locals say

A three-year-old girl and a man were killed in recent junta airstrikes on villages along the eastern shore of the Chindwin River in Sagaing Region’s Paungbyin Township, Myanmar Now has learned. Yin Moe Htet San, 3, died and her elder sister was injured when western Khamine village in the northern part of the township was attacked by aircraft on December 16. They were reportedly playing at the time of the assault. Five days later, the junta’s air force targeted Htaw Ma and Thayaung villages, 10 miles away, killing 32-year-old Kyaw Soe and injuring 10 others. Some 13 bombs were reportedly dropped on the villages, hitting a football field, a bus stop, and a market, and destroying at least three homes and killing several livestock, local sources said. Resistance forces seized control of the town of Shwe Pyi Aye, also on the eastern banks of the Chindwin River, north of Paungbyin in neighbouring Homalin Township, in late November. Residents speculated that the recent aerial attacks on the villages in northern Paungbyin are an attempt by the junta to stop guerrilla groups from advancing further south, and to protect the junta’s strongholds in the area. “I think [the military] is attacking the villages around Paungbyin, where two of their battalions are based, in order to prevent the anti-junta forces from entering the town,” a local told Myanmar Now, referring to Infantry Battalions 367 and 388. Mountainous Paungbyin has a population of more than 100,000. Resistance groups have distributed pamphlets to people in the township on how to better protect themselves from potential airstrikes, including by digging bunkers, but few have reportedly made such preparations. Myanmar army ground forces have been unable to move through Homalin to retake Shwe Pyi Aye, members of a local resistance group said, noting that soldiers at the only military base in the township had been firing heavy artillery at the town. In addition to Shwe Pyi Aye, guerrilla forces have also seized the regional towns of Kawlin, Khampat, and Mawlu and are attempting to overtake Htigyaing, but the junta has been retaliating with airstrikes to try to main control of the location. Anti-junta forces have seized at least 14 towns from the military over the last two months in coordination with Operation 1027, launched on October 27 by the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations in northern Shan State—the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army—and supported other resistance allies, including the People’s Defence Force under the publicly mandated National Unity Government. At the time of reporting, the military had not been able to reclaim any of these locations. The military has been carrying out recent aerial attacks against Namkham and Manton in northern Shan State—towns that have been claimed by the Brotherhood Alliance. From the February 2021 coup until August of this year, the junta conducted more than 900 airstrikes, killing 687 civilians, according to data compiled by the Nyan Lin Thit research group. Regime air attacks have become more frequent, with more than half of those in question carried out during the first eight months of 2023.

Junta bombs eastern Chindwin River villages in attempt to prevent resistance advances in Sagaing, locals say

Fatal junta airstrikes in Paungbyin Township follow resistance forces’ seizure of the town of Shwe Pyi Aye to the north and also located on the eastern banks of the Chindwin

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