Myanmar junta airstrikes kill three amid fight for northern Shan State township

At least three civilians have died in two days during bombing raids by the junta air force this week in northern Shan State’s Hsipaw Township, according to local human rights advocates. Staff at the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) told Myanmar Now that junta warplanes conducted a series of airstrikes over Hsipaw’s urban wards in the predawn hours on Tuesday, resulting in at least two civilian deaths. “Both Y-12 aircrafts and jet fighters conducted multiple airstrikes starting at around 1am,” an SHRF representative said. The victims were identified as two men in their 50s. A local civilian was also killed in Nar Ma Hkaw village some 25 miles south of Hsipaw when a junta plane bombed the village at around 5am the previous morning, the organisation said. The SHRF estimates that 19 people, including children, have been killed by junta artillery and aerial attacks in Hsipaw Township between July 19 and August 24. At least 110 houses and buildings, including monasteries, have sustained damage in the township in the same period. Locals assist and look on as rescue workers move victims killed and injured by airstrikes in Hsipaw Township this week (Photo: TNLA) The village is currently under the control of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), also known as the Kokang Army, an ethnic armed group that resumed fighting against junta forces in late June. The military’s Infantry Battalion 23 base north of Hsipaw was under continuous attack by anti-regime forces led by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) until this week, when the ethnic armed group said fighting had subsided, with junta forces still holding the base.According to the TNLA, the junta forces have only succeeded in maintaining control of the base by calling in air support. The TNLA and MNDAA are both members of the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations, which in 2023 initiated a sweeping, ongoing offensive campaign against junta forces in northern Shan State known as ‘Operation 1027’. Hsipaw has strategic importance due its location on the highway between Kyaukme, a northern Shan State town captured by the TNLA on August 5, and northern Shan State’s administrative capital of Lashio, which was seized by the MNDAA on August 3. There are three bases still controlled by the junta in Hsipaw Township’s outlying areas, while the town’s urban wards have been under the control of anti-regime forces led by the TNLA since mid-August. More than 2,000 Hsipaw locals have fled their homes amid the fighting, but at least 60 percent of the civilian population has remained within the town limits, according to the SHRF’s estimates. The humanitarian crisis in Hsipaw is worsening due to shortages of essential goods. Some locals have said they are now unable to access even the medicines they need due to regime forces’ restrictions on the transport of most goods into northern Shan State from Mandalay Region. “We couldn’t buy any medicine, and the hospital is no longer operating because there are no doctors,” a Hsipaw resident said. At least 1,000 people displaced from their homes by the fighting are now sheltering at the Bawgyo Pagoda around four miles west of Hsipaw, while around 1,000 more are taking shelter in Naung Ping village some 50 miles to the south.

Myanmar junta airstrikes kill three amid fight for northern Shan State township

Two ethnic armed groups of the Brotherhood Alliance are leading anti-junta forces in the battle for Hsipaw Township after capturing Kyaukme to the west and northern Shan State’s capital, Lashio, to the east

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