Myanmar junta bombs Kyaukme as fighting for control of Nawnghkio continues

The Myanmar military has stepped aerial attacks on Kyaukme, northern Shan State, broadening an ongoing counteroffensive to retake the town of Nawnghkio from anti-regime forces some 32 miles to the south, according to local anti-junta fighters. A man was killed and four people were injured when a junta warplane dropped bombs in Kyaukme’s urban wards early Friday morning, according to the same anti-junta fighters as well as civilian residents of the town. “A hotel and two police stations were targeted by a junta fighter jet on Friday at 3am,” a man from Kyaukme said. “The people staying at the hotel had previously been displaced from Nawnghkio, and they were sheltering there when the airstrikes occurred.” The junta air force had also bombed Kyaukme three days earlier, killing a woman and wounding four other civilians on Tuesday, according to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the anti-junta ethnic armed organisation that controls the town. Kyaukme Township has become a refuge for civilians displaced from their homes in Nawnghkio amid months of fighting between the Ta’ang armed group and junta troops. According to local sources, clashes are currently occurring some three miles south of Nawnghkio near Nam Hsawng Hu village, which is adjacent to the junta’s Missile Battalion 606 base taken over by the TNLA last year. On Wednesday, junta troops advancing from Tawng Hkam captured a resistance-held position in Nam Hsawng Hu, local sources said. “The military has surrounded the town, deploying thousands of troops,” a man from Nawnghkio Township said. “One junta column is advancing from Tawng Hkam, while another is pushing forward from Kyauk Kyan.” Kyauk Kyan is less than five miles southwest of Nawnghkio, about five miles west of Nam Hsawng Hu, and just one mile from the bases of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 114 and LIB 115, both of which are also currently controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army. Amid the continuing clashes, a junta column dispatched from a base in Bant Bway Base, nearly 14 miles southwest of Nawnghkio, has recaptured parts of Hsam Ma Hse village and is pushing towards Kyauk Kyan, local sources said. “They haven’t entered the town yet. We’re doing everything we can to defend it. Whenever we launch a counterattack, they retreat,” said a resistance source connected to the TNLA. The Ta’ang armed group acknowledged in a public statement that clashes had erupted in seven villages near Nawnghkio on Wednesday, and claimed regime forces attacked using drones and fired off a volley of artillery shells during the clashes. However, the TNLA has yet to respond to queries regarding the ongoing fighting in Nawnghkio Township. As fighting intensifies near Nawnghkio, the military regime has tightened travel restrictions on the detour routes between Nawnghkio and the garrison town of Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region since early July. The TNLA also closed some sections of the road connecting Nawnghkio and Kyaukme on Thursday. Responding to pressure from the Chinese government, which has been urging the cessation of hostilities between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups, TNLA officials have agreed to attend scheduled talks with junta officials in China’s Yunnan Province in late August.

Myanmar junta bombs Kyaukme as fighting for control of Nawnghkio continues

The attacks, which appear to be an extension of the military’s counteroffensive to recapture Nawnghkio, northern Shan State, injured four people and caused one civilian death

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