Myanmar air force bombs villages in northern Shan State as planned ceasefire fails

The junta air force deployed a warplane to bomb northern Shan State’s Kyaukme Township on Thursday morning, Kyaukme residents said, while clashes continued in the state despite a declared ceasefire. “They have been carrying out aerial attacks just outside the town since 10am,” a resident said. “We don’t know the exact places they bombed, because we can’t leave the town.” Other Kyaukme locals said junta planes appeared to have carried out at least three rounds of airstrikes in villages in the town’s southeastern periphery on Wednesday. “We heard that Zaw Ti Kone and upper Nam Hu Tawng villages around a mile from the edge of town were bombed last night,” a resident said. Residents posted video footage on Facebook on Thursday showing a house in Zaw Ti Kone village that had evidently sustained damage from the bombing. No civilian casualties were reported in Zaw Ti Kone and upper Nam Hu Tawng villages. Local sources said clashes broke out in at least two locations outside of Kyaukme: near Nar Hkaw village, some three miles to the east on the Pyidaungsu highway connects Kyaukme with Hsipaw; and Nawng Ping Lay village, some three miles south of town. The intense fighting between junta troops and anti-regime forces in northern Shan State and neighbouring parts of Mandalay Region has continued this week despite the anti-junta armed groups’ announcement of a four-day, temporary ceasefire on Sunday. The Myanmar Democratic National Alliance Army (MNDAA) or Kokang Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA)—both members of the anti-junta Brotherhood Alliance—said in their announcements that while they planned to observe the ceasefire, they would fight back if junta forces attacked them. Fighting resumed in Kyaukme on Tuesday as a convoy carrying junta reinforcements from Lawksawk (Yatsauk) in southern Shan State advanced towards Kyaukme on the Pyidaungsu highway. Houses destroyed by junta airstrikes in a village in Shan State’s Kyaukme Township in June (Photo: TNLA Information Team) The town of Kyaukme fell under the TNLA’s control at the end of June shortly after the Brotherhood Alliance announced the end of a ceasefire with the military that had been in effect since January. Fighting continued elsewhere in Kyaukme Township as TNLA-led forces persisted in attacking the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 501 and 502 bases after capturing several government offices and other buildings where junta troops had stationed in the town. “Clashes broke out near Nawng Ping Lay village two days ago. Many displaced people who were sheltering in Nawng Ping Lay, Nar Tum, and nearby villages had to move back to the town,” said a volunteer for a Kyaukme-based social welfare team assisting displaced people. On Tuesday, junta shelling killed at least three civilians in Hko Mone village less than three miles southwest of Kyaukme, according to the TNLA’s information team. Three more civilians reportedly died the same day when junta shells landed in Lashio’s urban wards as MNDAA fighters advanced into the town, the TNLA said. The junta also conducted at least three airstrikes on the outskirts of Lashio on Tuesday, according to local sources. The TNLA estimated on Wednesday that there have been at least 70 civilian fatalities and 112 injuries in northern Shan State and adjacent areas of Mandalay Region due to junta shelling and bombing since fighting resumed at the end of June.

Myanmar air force bombs villages in northern Shan State as planned ceasefire fails

Although no civilian casualties were reported from the airstrikes in Kyaukme Township, several civilians were killed or injured by shelling during the same few days

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