Myanmar junta airstrike kills child, injure three civilians in rural Mandalay Region

Raids conducted by the military junta’s air force in Ngazun Township, Mandalay Region on Wednesday night resulted in the death of a child and injuries to three other villagers, local sources said. A Y-12 transport aircraft thought to have taken off from the Meiktila Air Force Base fired on the village of Myay Taing—also known as Sin Hpyu Kone—and surrounding areas at least six times, according to local residents, killing a six-year-old girl and injuring two men and a woman. “There has been no fighting within a three- to four-mile radius of Sin Hpyu Kone, and yet they sent the Y-12,” said a man living in Ngazun Township who requested anonymity for security reasons. “Resistance forces don’t have a concentrated presence here in this village. They’re active throughout Ngazun Township,” he added, also noting that the airstrikes had damaged homes and killed livestock, including cows on which local families depend for farming. Following the airstrike on a village in Ngazun Township, a local man shows his injuries and a cow is seen lying dead (Photo: Supplied) Sin Hpyu Kone is located some 12 miles west of Ngazun, more than 30 miles west of Mandalay, and two miles south of the Ayeyarwady River’s southwest bank. The scarcity of medical supplies and lack of access to adequate treatment in the rural areas made even ordinary injuries from bombing, shelling, or fighting potentially life-threatening outside of the cities, the Sin Hpyu Kone resident remarked. The military council has yet to issue a statement regarding airstrikes in Ngazun Township. Ngazun Township shares borders with Natogyi and Myingyan townships, and is located opposite Sagaing Region’s Myaung Township on the northwest bank of the Ayeyarwady, all known strongholds of the anti-junta armed resistance. Resistance forces tried to raid the Myo Thar police station in Ngazun Township—some 30 miles southeast of Sin Hpyu Kone and 35 miles southwest of Mandalay—in early September, but were forced to withdraw when fresh junta reinforcements reached the battlefield. The previous month, an alliance of anti-junta forces including the People’s Defence Force and local resistance groups initiated a coordinated campaign of attacks on military targets called the Myingyan District Special Operation. Among the targets was a checkpoint known for extorting money from civilians, located near Natogyi’s immigration office, as well as police stations and other junta outposts. Resistance fighters say they have been conducting guerrilla-style raids in the area southwest of Mandalay, a flat plain with few obstacles to their movements. In response, the junta has relied increasingly on airstrikes to provide support to its ground troops in Mandalay Region. While junta ground operations have weakened—possibly due to their need to deploy troops to multiple fronts around the country—junta forces have been able to maintain a strategic advantage because of their air force. On Wednesday, the same day the junta aircraft fired on the village in Ngazun Township, airstrikes were also reported in Myaung Township and Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Township, as well as Pale Township in Sagaing Region and in Chin State’s Mindat and Falam townships. With resistance forces escalating offensive operations in Madaya and Thabeikkyin townships north of Mandalay since September, junta forces have been carrying out more frequent airstrikes and area clearing operations throughout Mandalay Region and along the southeast bank of the Ayeyarwady in recent months. The intense fighting has forced the inhabitants of as many as 30 villages on the Ayeyarwady to abandon their homes, sometimes fleeing to islands in the river for safety.

Myanmar junta airstrike kills child, injure three civilians in rural Mandalay Region

The regime’s air force conducted a series of six attacks on villages in Mandalay Region’s Ngazun Township despite a lack of recent fighting in the area

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