Myanmar junta airstrikes kill 12 at IDP camp in Mandalay’s Madaya Township

Twelve civilians, including three monks and a child, were killed by junta airstrikes in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township on Friday, according to the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (MDY-PDF). The victims were staying in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) when it was hit by a bomb dropped on the village of Waw Su at around 6:30pm, the group said in a statement. “Innocent civilians were killed because the regime launched airstrikes on Waw Su for no reason,” Osmond, the MDY-PDF spokesperson, told Myanmar Now. “It was a blatant war crime.” A man living in the area said the airstrikes appeared to target villages in the western part of the township along the bank of the Ayeyarwady River. “Judging by the sound of the explosions, they were using 500-pound bombs. The sound was deafening,” the man said. At around the same time, ground troops were also attacking Yang Kone, a village about five miles northwest of the town of Madaya, according to the MDY-PDF. No casualties were reported, but a number of houses were burned down, the group said. The attacks came a day after the regime carried out airstrikes on the villages of Kyauk Ta Dar and La Maing, east of the town of Madaya, according to local residents. “The resistance forces fired on the planes as they hit La Maing, so then they bombed Kyauk Ta Dar, too. Artillery vehicles also advanced on the villages along the Mandalay-Madaya road, firing machine guns at both sides of the road,” a source said. Clashes intensified last week in Madaya Township, which is just 25 miles north of Mandalay, as resistance forces continued their push towards Myanmar’s second-largest city.Last month, junta artillery fire killed six civilians, including four children, in the village of Thone Se Pay in Madaya Towsnhip.

Myanmar junta airstrikes kill 12 at IDP camp in Mandalay’s Madaya Township

The deadly airstrikes come as regime and resistance forces continue to clash for control of the area north of Myanmar’s second-largest city

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