Myanmar military kills 15 civilians in airstrikes on resistance-controlled villages north of Mandalay

Regime airstrikes killed at least 15 people, including children, during two days of attacks that began on Sunday in Mandalay Region’s Singu Township, according to local residents and resistance sources. On Sunday evening, junta warplanes bombed the villages of Nwe Yon and Kan Taung, both north of the town of Singu, the anti-regime Mandalay People’s Defence Force (MDY-PDF) said in a statement released on Monday. In Nwe Yon, 11 people, including a child, were killed and six others were injured, while in Kan Taung, two adults and a child were killed and 13 others injured, according to the statement. Cluster bombs were used in both attacks, it added. The next day, the regime targeted Let Pan Hla, a village about five miles east of Singu, resulting in one death and the destruction of a school and a hospital, the statement said. The MDY-PDF, which operates under the command of the publicly mandated National Unity Government, captured Singu, located on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River about 40 miles north of the city of Mandalay, on July 17. Since then, the regime has carried out a relentless campaign of destruction against the town and the surrounding area. In its statement, the MDY-PDF condemned the junta’s attacks on civilians outside of active combat zones, asserting that they constitute war crimes. Local residents who spoke to Myanmar Now about the current situation said there has been no fighting near Singu since the middle of July. “They’re just throwing sand at meat they can’t eat. They’re angry because they lost Singu. There have been no ground battles, just air raids,” said one woman living in Singu, describing the junta’s actions. While some Singu residents who fled south to Mandalay and neighbouring Madaya Township at the height of the fighting have since returned, many others remain displaced due to fears of the regime’s aerial assaults. “Even though it’s now a military-free zone, we’re still afraid of air raids. People who remain in the area are living in fear. Those who left were planning to return this month, but now they can't,” said a local man. Singu is located on the road from Mandalay to Mogok, the ruby-mining town captured by anti-regime forces late last month. Intense fighting has been reported both north and south of Singu Township. The Kachin Independence Army has been carrying out an offensive in Thabeikkyin Township to the north, while in Madaya Township, the MDY-PDF and allied groups continue their push for control of Mandalay’s northern outskirts. To the west, the military has been bolstering its defences in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township, opposite Singu on the western side of the Ayeyarwady River.

Myanmar military kills 15 civilians in airstrikes on resistance-controlled villages north of Mandalay

The junta has been carrying out a campaign of destruction in Singu Township since it fell to the resistance in mid-July

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