Myanmar air force strikes towns held by Ta’ang fighters in northern Shan State

The military carried out airstrikes in Hsipaw Township, northern Shan state on Monday targeting Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) forces occupying the township’s urban centre and killing one woman, according to a local monitoring group. The aerial attacks struck at least three urban wards in Hsipaw, according to the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), an advocacy and aid organisation monitoring the humanitarian impact of the Myanmar regime’s military operations in the state. “A woman was fatally wounded by flying shrapnel in the West Block,” an SHRF representative said. “At least three injuries were reported from the Zay and Pathein Taung wards yesterday.” A resident of Kyawng Pying village, around a mile and a half east of Hsipaw, was also injured in the junta aerial assaults on Monday, the SHRF said. Hsipaw is a small town located on the Myitnge River between Lashio—the capital of northern Shan State, now under the control of the TNLA’s ally, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army—and the town of Kyaukme, which is under TNLA control. According to a statement released by the TNLA, junta warplanes dropped at least 50 bombs on Hsipaw on Monday, causing numerous civilian casualties and damaging houses. Since early August, anti-regime forces led by the TNLA—an ethnic armed group active near the Palaung Self-Administered Zone in northern Shan State—have been conducting sustained attacks on the regime’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 23 base, despite pressure from the Chinese government to suspend hostilities and engage in peace talks. “Clashes are still ongoing in Hsipaw and so far, we’ve taken over at least 60 percent of the IB 23 base,” a source connected to the TNLA said. The military regime also conducted airstrikes on another TNLA-controlled northern Shan State town, Nawnghkio, located southwest of Kyaukme and some 40 miles northeast of the military stronghold of Pyin Oo Lwin. The airstrikes occurred over the weekend, according to the TNLA-connected source, causing casualties among the civilians still living there, although the exact figures were not yet confirmed. Fighting between the Ta’ang armed group and junta forces has intensified in Nawnghkio Township since anti-regime forces captured two junta artillery battalion bases in Tawng Hkam village, some 20 miles south of the township’s urban centre, last month. Intense clashes broke out on Saturday and Sunday near Tawng Hkam and the neighbouring village of Ma Gyi Yae, the location of a third artillery battalion base, the TNLA said. Junta warplanes conducted a series of airstrikes on resistance-held towns in northern Shan State last week, killing at least a dozen civilians in Namkham, a trade hub held by the TNLA on the China-Myanmar border. More than 20 civilians have been killed by aerial assaults and shelling conducted by military regime forces in Hsipaw Township, according to local rights groups.

Myanmar air force strikes towns held by Ta’ang fighters in northern Shan State

Junta aircraft bombed the urban wards controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in Hsipaw and villages south of Nawnghkio where junta troops are continuing to defend an artillery battalion base

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