Myanmar military hammers Kyaukme with airstrikes while pushing into TNLA-held areas

Junta airstrikes killed at least 10 people and injured over a dozen in northern Shan State on Wednesday as the military fought to recover territory held by the ethnic armed group Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), according to local volunteers. The attack targeted areas of Kyaukme Township, where the TNLA has held control since fully capturing its urban centre in August 2024 during Operation 1027, a coordinated offensive against the regime’s forces. The military has launched counteroffensives in recent months to recapture territory previously lost to anti-junta groups. “Bombs struck a monastery in Pin Tee village at 10:30am and a police station in Loke Par at 11am,” said a representative of the Tai Student Union, a group assisting displaced people. There were four children among the 10 people killed in the airstrikes, which occurred near the Nawng Ping, a village under the control of the ethnic organisation Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) some 14 miles southwest of Kyaukme. According to the Tai Student Union, at least 400 displaced people were sheltering at the monastery in Pin Tee, located around two miles south of Htan Ta Pin village, when it was attacked. At least four injured people were moved to the TNLA-controlled town of Kutkai for treatment, as well as to northern Shan State’s largest city, Lashio, which is now under junta control. Others were taken to a facility in Kyaukme Township’s Pong Woe village for care. Local sources said people had gone missing after the airstrike and that the death toll of ten from the airstrike is expected to rise. “We are unable to confirm the exact number of civilian casualties, as some bodies remain unrecovered and access to Loke Par and Pin Tee requires passing through active conflict zones,” a man from Kyaukme Township said. The junta’s August 20 airstrikes reportedly injured at least a dozen people and killed ten, including four children (Photo: SSPP Info) The military has continued to hammer the area with bombs and shells, according to local people, who said that the warplanes circling overhead had deterred people from going out to search for or recover the bodies of their neighbours or relatives. Clashes broke out earlier this week in Htan Ta Pin, which is around four miles northeast of the strategically vital town of Nawnghkio. The TNLA—also known colloquially as the Ta’ang Army—held Nawnghkio for a year before the military retook it in mid-July. The rural areas where the recent fighting between junta troops and Ta’ang army in Kyaukme Township had been under the control of the SSPP/SSA. The Ta’ang armed group and the junta troops both entered the area to seize territory, prompting the SSA to withdraw from villages under its control. “Junta troops crossed the creek near the site of the destroyed Goktwin Bridge by boat, bypassing the TNLA’s fortified positions,” a man from Kyaukme Township said. “The SSA pulled back because they couldn’t stop the opposing forces from clashing. But without their withdrawal, neither side could have entered the areas they did.” The Ta’ang army controls Kyaukme’s urban wards and parts of the town’s surroundings, while territories bordering Nawnghkio Township remain under the control of the SSPP/SSA. After recapturing Nawnghkio, northern Shan State in early July, regime forces are advancing from Nawnghkio into TNLA-held territory in two directions: northeast towards Kyaukme and northwest towards the gemstone-mining hub of Mogok, Mandalay Region. Many civilians remaining in Kyaukme are preparing to flee as the junta troops draw closer.

Myanmar military hammers Kyaukme with airstrikes while pushing into TNLA-held areas

Since recapturing the town of Nawnghkio from the Ta’ang army, the Myanmar military’s forces have been pushing towards Mogok, Mandalay Region and Kyaukme, northern Shan State

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