Myanmar junta airstrikes injure eight civilians in Mandalay Region

Subscribe to the Myanmar Now daily newsletter. It's free. Sign up > Airstrikes by Myanmar’s military injured eight civilians in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township on Tuesday, according to local residents and resistance sources. The victims were all residents of Mwayponkan, a village located on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River. According to Bo Tauk, the information officer of the Madaya Township People’s Defence Organisation, the village was hit twice on the same day. “In the morning, they used fighter jets to drop two 250-pound bombs on the village. Then they came back again in the evening,” he said. The first strike, which took place before dawn, injured two men, while the second strike, which was carried out at around 5:45pm, injured four women and two men, said Bo Tauk. The airstrikes also killed some livestock and damaged the village monastery and a number of houses, he added. A local woman who spoke to Myanmar Now on Thursday said that there was no fighting taking place in the area when the village came under attack. She said it was likely the regime believed the village was harbouring members of the resistance. “They’ve also been shelling villages south of here,” she said, adding that attacks on islands in the river and on villages along its banks have increased since anti-regime forces in Mandalay fired a barrage of shells at the headquarters of the regime’s Central Regional Military Command on Tuesday. The situation north of Myanmar’s second-largest city remains tense following months of gains by resistance forces operating in the area. On Monday, a column of around 50 junta troops attempted to advance on the Phayaung Taung gold mine in Patheingyi Township, located about 14 miles northeast of Mandalay. The mine, owned by junta crony Maung Ko, was captured by the Mandalay People’s Defence Force in early August. “They started advancing from the west of Phayaung Taung. There was firing almost the whole day,” said a local resident of the area. The junta column eventually retreated, he added. Fighting was also reported the next day in Latkaunglay, a village east of the town of Madaya. However, no further details were available at the time of reporting. Allied resistance forces have been waging an offensive north of Mandalay since June 25. So far, they claim to have captured 32 army outposts in Madaya and three in Patheingyi, and have taken full control of Singu and Thabeikkyin townships north of Madaya. The military has responded to its losses in these areas with air and artillery attacks, resulting in heavy civilian casualties. Farther north, along the western bank of the Ayeyarwady River in Sagaing Region, a junta flotilla has been terrorising villagers as it makes it way upriver towards Bhamo in Kachin State, where the military is attempting to retake towns captured by the Kachin Independence Army. On Tuesday, the junta also dropped bombs on Manton, a town in the Palaung Self-Administered Zone controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). According to the TNLA, regime airstrikes and artillery fire killed 22 civilians and injured more than 60 in Hsipaw, another town under its control, in August. Many other towns in northern Shan State captured by the TNLA and its ally, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MNDAA), have been subject to random attacks in recent months. Lashio, the region’s largest city, has been hit by multiple airstrikes since it was seized by the MNDAA a month ago, most recently on August 30. Similar attacks have also been reported in Rakhine and Karenni (Kayah) states over the past week, prompting accusations that the regime is deliberately targeting civilian areas in retaliation for losses to its opponents.

Myanmar junta airstrikes injure eight civilians in Mandalay Region

The regime has been accused of deliberately targeting civilians in resistance-held areas in retaliation for its recent military losses

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