Myanmar military airstrike kills at least 7 in Kyauktaw

Myanmar military airstrikes on the town of Kyauktaw in Rakhine State killed at least seven people and wounded more than a dozen others on Wednesday, local residents and community sources said. Four fighter jets dropped about eight bombs on Kyauktaw’s Lanmadaw, Ywar Ma and Paik Thei wards between 3pm and 4pm, causing civilian casualties and destroying homes, according to residents. “The number of casualties may still rise,” one resident told Myanmar Now. Authorities and local groups were still working to verify the identities of those killed and injured. Medical treatment was being provided to the wounded, residents said. A 25-year-old woman from Kyauktaw said the aircraft flew at low altitude during the attack, leaving many residents traumatised. “Now, whenever I hear motorcycles or cars, I think a jet is coming. My hands are still shaking even now, as I type this message,” she said via a social media application. Another resident, a 35-year-old woman, said she spent nearly an hour in a bomb shelter before emerging to scenes of devastation. “People were running everywhere. Some were so frightened they fainted,” she said, adding that she saw a woman who had lost a leg after being struck by shrapnel. An official from the Kyauktaw Youths Association said residents were living in constant fear because airstrikes could occur without warning. “There is no safety, not only in residential areas but also in the places where we earn our livelihoods,” the official said. “It is emotionally devastating to see homes destroyed by fire and innocent civilians injured.” The attack followed another military airstrike on Monday in Yan Mar Kyun, a village in Gwa Township, that killed two people and wounded eight others, according to local residents. “The bombs were dropped around 7pm while many people were asleep,” a resident involved in humanitarian work said. “Three 500-pound bombs were dropped.” Military aircraft also struck the village of Aung Tha Pyay in Kyaukphyu Township on Monday. No casualties were reported, but several homes and buildings at a Buddhist monastery were damaged, residents said. The latest attacks come as fighting continues between Myanmar’s military regime and the Arakan Army, which now controls 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships. The group has pledged to seize the remaining townships of Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, and Munaung, which remain under military control.

Myanmar military airstrike kills at least 7 in Kyauktaw

The attack comes just days after another in Rakhine State that left at least two civilians dead in Gwa Township

Subscribe for full access

After 100 days of ‘civilian’ rule, Myanmar remains a bastion of oppression

‘We cannot write as before’: Women poets of Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Sent to die: Myanmar’s conscripts caught between a junta’s war and a nation’s collapse

Magway emerges as key front in junta’s strategy to claw back control of western Myanmar

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

MNDAA hands 41 POWs to Myanmar junta in Lashio amid ongoing talks

Myanmar resistance resumes attacks north of Mandalay as junta expands offensives to the south

Over 500 feared dead in two suspected shipwrecks off Myanmar: UN

ASEAN envoy meets Myanmar junta, ethnic armed groups in Thailand as NUG questions exclusion