Two people were reportedly killed during a military raid on Pa Dat Taing village in Sagaing Region’s Myinmu Township on Monday, an information officer from an anti-junta coalition and a leader of the local resistance force said.
A fighter jet opened fire on the community as two helicopters brought in some 40 junta reinforcement troops from the Northwestern Military Command, according to the two sources. The helicopters were reportedly seen leaving the command headquarters at around 11am, after which time they arrived in Pa Dat Taing.
“The aircraft were hovering over the area for a while and then around six bombs were dropped from the MI-35 attack helicopter while the other two helicopters dropped off soldiers east of the site,” the information officer for Myinmu Township’s coalition of anti-junta groups told Myanmar Now.
Monday marked the first military airstrike in Myinmu, but the information officer—who goes by the alias “Satan”—said there had been no fighting between the resistance and the junta’s forces in Pa Dat Taing, although there had been several clashes in neighbouring Ayadaw Township.
“I don’t know what they heard about our village, but our village is located at the border between Ayadaw, Monywa and Myinmu townships, so maybe they assumed there would be local defence forces in the village. There have not been any battles around our village,” Satan said.
The reinforcement troops brought in by helicopter killed two villagers: an elderly man and another man known as Kyauk Khe, whose age was not confirmed, according to the information officer.
At the time of reporting, the soldiers were still occupying the village, stationed inside the school and holding 40 residents hostage.
Satan added that more troops were also sent by air to Ma Le Thar village, some two miles away in Ayadaw Township, on Monday afternoon.
“They raided the village in the afternoon and are still stationed inside Ma Le Thar. They didn’t stop firing either heavy or light weapons until 30 minutes ago,” a leader of the local defence force in the area told Myanmar Now by phone on Monday at 6pm. “We still cannot get close to the village.”
Facing significant casualties on the ground, the military has been using air power to attack and replenish their forces against resistance groups in anti-junta strongholds like those throughout Sagaing and Magway regions.
The military has carried out airstrikes in a total of 26 townships in seven states and regions over the last year, according to a January report by the underground National Unity Government. The junta has not acknowledged its use of air power in its statements describing village raids as operations to capture members of the resistance.
