Late-night airstrikes kill six villagers in Mandalay Region’s Taungtha Township

A junta airstrike on a village in Mandalay Region’s Taungtha Township late Tuesday night left six people dead and destroyed nearly 30 houses, according to a local resident.The attack on Nat Saunt, a village about six miles west of the town of Taungtha, was carried out at around 10:30pm, a man living in the area told Myanmar Now.“Six people were killed—four women, a child, and an elderly man. Their bodies were reduced to charred bones. With the entire village having fled, no one was left to put out the flames,” he said.Further details about the victims were not available at the time of reporting.The man suggested that the bombs used in the air raids were likely of a highly explosive type, as 28 houses were completely destroyed by fire within a short time of the attack.“They couldn’t have been regular bombs, given the intense fire they caused. They may have been incendiary bombs. Previous bombings only caused buildings to collapse without starting fires, but this time was different,” he said.The attack has forced the entire population of Nat Saunt, a village of more than 350 households, to flee, according to the man. Residents of other villages in the area, where most people work as onion or toddy palm farmers, have also been displaced.Myanmar’s military has stepped up its attacks near Taungtha since January 12, when resistance forces ambushed a junta convoy in the town, killing more than 20 regime troops and seizing weapons and ammunition.The following day, another ambush on soldiers stationed at a high school in the town left at least 10 dead and many others wounded, according to the People’s Defence Force (PDF) battalion that carried out the attack.On January 21, resistance forces targeted the police station in Wea Laung, a village about seven miles south of Nat Saunt, but were forced to retreat due to intense airstrikes.Since then, however, there have been no active clashes in Taungtha Township, according to Lt. Mu Tu, information officer for the Taungtha PDF.“There is no fighting in Taungtha at the moment. Right now, it’s just the junta conducting airstrikes. They have no troops on the ground here now,” he said, adding that the regime is deliberately targeting civilians with its recent attacks.The regime has also increased its use of paramotors in the region, adding to civilian casualties. The Taungtha Township People’s Movement Committee told Myanmar Now that there were at least nine paramotor bombing raids carried out in the township in January, killing six civilians.Data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reveals that 106 people were killed by Myanmar’s military in February, with 78 of those deaths attributed to airstrikes.

Late-night airstrikes kill six villagers in Mandalay Region’s Taungtha Township

The victims were four women, a child, and an elderly man, according to local sources

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