Lashio residents killed in Myanmar junta airstrikes after Kokang fighters’ takeover

Airstrikes conducted by the Myanmar military in Lashio, northern Shan State have killed at least eight civilians since the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) captured the city last Thursday, locals said. A resident of Ward 1 in Lashio—which serves as northern Shan State’s administrative capital—told Myanmar Now that at least two people had died near the centre of town as the junta air force targeted government buildings over the previous three days. “One of the victims died immediately while the other, who suffered a leg injury, died later. They were buried at the dugout shelter outside their home," said the Ward 1 resident, who has since fled the city. A Buddhist monk also died from a bullet wound in Ward 1 on Saturday, he added. Five more people, who had been displaced from their homes in Hsenwi, northern Shan State, were also killed on Sunday after the monastery where they were taking shelter near Mangsu Pagoda was hit by junta airstrikes, a Lashio-based social welfare group said. One death and two injuries were also reported in the city’s Ward 3 on Sunday, according to a Lashio-based social welfare group that has been tracking civilian casualties and assisting the injured. The offices of the general administration department, the military recruitment corps, and the immigration and population ministry, as well as the township court and Lashio Motel have all been bombed by junta jet fighters and Y-12 transport aircrafts since last Friday, according to the Ward 1 resident, who fled the town on Sunday. Fighting eased on Monday after armed members of the United Wa State Army (UWSA)—Shan State’s largest and most powerful ethnic armed organisation and a sometime ally of the MNDAA—arrived in the city on Saturday, according to a social welfare worker. “The fighting hasn’t stopped yet but the situation is a bit calmer now that the Wa army has come into Lashio,” he said. A spokesperson for the UWSA confirmed to Myanmar Now on Monday that the group’s forces are still present in Lashio. The MNDAA—colloquially called the Kokang Army—is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations, which in October 2023 initiated Operation 1027, a broad, coordinated offensive campaign against military targets in northern Shan State. Since its recent takeover of Lashio, the MNDAA has reportedly been freeing inmates from Lashio Prison, including more than 200 political prisoners, according to Maung Maung Swe, a spokesperson for the publicly mandated National Unity Government’s Ministry of Defence. Among the released political prisoners is Tun Tun Hein, a member of the ousted civilian National League for Democracy government who served as deputy parliament speaker before the 2021 military coup, Maung Maung Swe said. “More than 200 political prisoners including U Tun Tun Hein are in a safe place,” Maung Maung Swe said. At the same time, at least a quarter of the town's remaining population is trapped amid the ongoing fighting and unable to leave town, according to local sources, who also confirmed that the MNDAA is currently occupying wards 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 in the town. Four more civilians were injured by stray bullets in Lashio’s Ward 12 before fleeing to Nam Lan, a village some 70 miles south of Lashio, according to a social welfare group working in the village. “We don’t know which side shot them,” a volunteer working with the group said. “They arrived in Nam Lan at around 7:30pm on Sunday. We provided medical aid and sent them to a local doctor. They were transferred to Mandalay this morning.” The MNDAA released photos last week showing around a dozen of their fighters posing at Lashio’s general hospital, city hall, police station, and the army’s Light Infantry battalion (LIB) 41 and Light Infantry LIB 507 bases. The Kokang armed group also captured the army’s LIB 68 base on Saturday.

Lashio residents killed in Myanmar junta airstrikes after Kokang fighters’ takeover

A monk and five displaced people were among at least seven fatalities in Lashio as clashes continued and the junta carried out bombing raids in a city now controlled by the MNDAA and its ally, the United Wa State Army

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