Junta paramotor attacks kill four in Sagaing’s Kani Township

A series of paramotor attacks by Myanmar’s military killed four civilians in a village in Sagaing Region’s Kani Township on Monday, according to local resistance forces. A motorised paraglider, launched from the junta’s Northwestern Regional Military Command centre near the Sagaing capital Monywa, carried out two attacks on the village of Tha Min Chan shortly after 6:15pm, sources said. “Four people and four or five cattle died. They bombed residential areas and areas near the road. There was no fighting on the ground at the time, and no armed groups were present,” a local resistance fighter told Myanmar Now. He added that Tha Min Chan, a village of around 500 households located about eight miles south of the junta-controlled town of Kani, has been a frequent target of such attacks. “It has been hit at least five times this year alone,” he said. Earlier this month, a junta air attack on Tha Min Chan claimed the life of an 18-year-old student, just days after an elderly woman died in a similar assault on August 31. Multiple attacks were also reported in April. Junta ground troops have been attempting to advance in Kani Township for months, but have been unable to do so due to the strong presence of resistance forces in the area. Beginning on September 3, regime forces launched a renewed effort to retake control of a key section of the road linking Kani to Monywa, just 35 miles to the south. A junta column has been stationed in Chaungma, a village about six miles south of Tha Min Chan on the main Monywa-Kalewa highway, for the past week, according to resistance sources. At least seven members of the column were killed during clashes that took place on September 11, the sources said. Resistance forces also took four prisoners and seized weapons and ammunition, they added. The regime is currently conducting counteroffensive operations in Kani, Pale, and Yinmabin townships, which are all situated west of Monywa in southern Sagaing Region’s Yinmabin District. Last year, ant-junta groups came close to capturing the town of Kani, but were forced to retreat because of heavy aerial bombardment by the regime. The junta has been intensifying its efforts to retake lost territory ahead of elections slated for the end of this year, with heavy fighting being reported in at least 15 townships.

Junta paramotor attacks kill four in Sagaing’s Kani Township

The victims, all civilians, were just the latest to be killed in Tha Min Chan, a village that has been a frequent target of such attacks

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