Myanmar junta airstrike kills at least eight civilians in Bago Region village: NUG

At least eight civilians, including three children, were killed in a junta airstrike on a village in Bago Region’s Yedashe Township on Saturday, according to National Unity Government (NUG) military sources. The attack targeted Laylarmyaung, an ethnic Karen village of nearly 6,000 residents at the foot of the Bago Yoma mountain range, at around 11am, the NUG’s Bago Region Military Department said in a statement. Two 250-pound bombs were dropped on the village and junta aircraft also strafed the area with machine-gun fire, it said. Three of those killed were children between the ages of seven and 13. Photos released by the NUG showed severely burned bodies, destroyed homes, and a Christian church damaged in the bombing. The casualty toll and extent of the damage could not be independently verified. “Laylarmyaung is a large Karen village. It is among the villages frequently targeted by airstrikes,” a resident of Yedashe Township with relatives in the village told Myanmar Now. The strikes were likely carried out because pro-junta informants had claimed there were resistance groups there, he added. Saw Do Shin, information officer for People’s Defence Force (PDF) Region 2, which oversees resistance operations in Bago Region, said civilians remain especially vulnerable to air attacks. “Civilians cannot evade airstrikes the way our PDF comrades can because they do not have the same training or preparation,” he said. Another source close to resistance forces in Bago Region said no PDF units were operating in or passing through Laylarmyaung when the attack occurred and that there had been no fighting on the ground prior to the bombing. The junta also launched at least four more airstrikes later that afternoon, targeting areas east of of the village of Sakway and near the Swar Creek Dam at around 4:38pm and 4:50pm, according to the NUG. The damage from those attacks was not immediately known. The NUG said resistance forces under the Bago Region Military Department provided medical treatment and emergency assistance to residents affected by the strike. It accused the junta of deliberately targeting civilians, describing the attacks as human rights violations and war crimes. The attack was the second-deadliest reported airstrike in Bago Region this year. On March 5, a junta airstrike on a monastery in Yaetwinkone, a village in Nyaunglebin Township, killed 25 civilians who had been detained there by junta troops after a military raid, according to the NUG. Villages along the Bago Yoma have repeatedly come under artillery and air attacks as the military intensifies operations against resistance strongholds in the region. A PDF fighter operating in the Sittaung River basin in Yedashe Township said the military has been carrying out near-daily raids and airstrikes on villages under resistance control in an effort to prevent attacks on towns and military bases, resulting in civilian casualties and widespread destruction of homes. According to the Myanmar Internet Project, the junta carried out 520 airstrikes across 13 states and regions from April until the end of June this year, killing 314 civilians.

Myanmar junta airstrike kills at least eight civilians in Bago Region village: NUG

Three children were among the dead in the attack, which also destroyed several homes and a church

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