Myanmar military’s air, artillery strikes kill eight in Gangaw District

Junta bombs, shells, and drones killed eight and injured at least 10 civilians on Saturday in Magway Region’s Gangaw District, according to local and resistance sources. The attacks impacted at least three villages, all located within 10 miles of Magway Region’s western border with Chin State, including Kyin village, Tilin Township; Yae Shin Ma village, Gangaw Township; and Pang Sang village, part of the town of Kyaukhtu in Saw Township, the same sources said. The airstrikes reportedly killed four men and one woman in Kyin, Tilin Township and one man in Yae Shin Ma, Gangaw Township, according to resistance members citing locals, while artillery and drones killed two women in Pang Sang (Kyaukhtu), Saw Township. Fighter jets took off from the military’s Magway air base at around 3pm on Friday before firing on various parts of Kyin, Tilin Township, including an auto and motorcycle maintenance shop on the north side of the village, locals said. “They fired from the two planes, which circled overhead at least three times each, making seven passes over the village in total,” said Sayar Kyaw, a member of a local resistance group. “They used both aircraft artillery and machine guns.” The first attack landed a direct hit on the repair shop, killing 18-year-old mechanic Naing Htet, Sayar Kyaw said. Minutes later, a strike in another part of Kyin village instantly killed Hpone Waiyan Min, 13, and his father, who was in his 50s, Sayar Kyaw added. “Hpone Waiyan Min’s body was severed below the waist. He and his father had taken cover, but a shell fell nearby,” Sayar Kyaw said, noting that all three victims were killed instantly. He added that another man, Zaw Win Htun, and a 19-year-old young woman, Nandar Aye, died from their injuries later that evening. The attack also resulted in a foot injury to an elderly woman and a head injury to a seven-month-old infant, Sayar Kyaw said, adding that both were now undergoing treatment. Locals said the airstrikes destroyed six houses in the village, as well as a tractor and two other vehicles stored at the auto repair shop. That morning, another vehicle repair shop had come under attack some 17 miles to the southwest in Pang Sang village—part of the town of Kyaukhtu, Saw Township—injuring at least 10 people, according to resistance members active in the area. Junta junta troops stationed in Kyaukhtu about a mile from Pang Sang deployed drones and fired artillery shells in the attack. The shells also struck a house in Pang Sang, instantly killing 41-year-old Khin Toe and her 14-year-old daughter, Khine Su Lwin. A resistance member from Tilin Township speculated that junta forces were deliberately targeting vehicle maintenance shops as part of a broader strategy to deprive resistance forces of any means of transportation, as shown by their previous sabotage of roads and bridges. The junta air force targeted a motorcycle and auto repair shop in Tilin Township, destroying a tractor and two other vehicles (Photo: Supplied) The Tilin resistance member also noted that the lack of mobile and internet service in the area made the effects of the attacks worse. Although the military had conducted reconnaissance missions hours before the airstrikes on Kyin village—which is located some 12 miles southeast of Tilin—most villagers did not receive warnings to flee because they had no mobile or internet service, he said. The junta’s air force also conducted airstrikes in Yae Shin Ma village, Gangaw Township after information leaked about a planned meeting of the local resistance administration team, according to the village’s residents. “The meeting was set for exactly 12 noon, and the shells hit at 12:20pm, targeting the precise location,” a villager said. According to village residents, junta aircraft struck near a scenic viewing point on the Gangaw-Kalay Road near the north bank of the Myittha River, first at 12:20pm and again at 12:40. Two men returning to Yae Shin Ma from a neighbouring village were stopping at the viewing point when the airstrike occurred, the Yae Shin Ma residents said, and Maung Lwin, 43, was struck in the head and killed. Magway Region’s Gangaw and Pakokku districts—also known as the Yaw region—are located between hotbeds of conflict in Chin State and Sagaing Region and have become strongholds for anti-junta resistance forces and their associated administration teams since Myanmar’s military coup of 2021. However, many civilians displaced by heavy junta shelling and airstrikes in this area are hesitant to return home and take up their previous livelihoods while the threat remains. While many have dug and constructed homemade bomb shelters on their properties, most lack sufficient resources or the skills to prepare them properly, according to Sayar Kyaw, the Tilin Township-based resistance member. “Locals have dug bomb shelters merely to have them, not with serious consideration,” Sayar Kyaw said. “Some didn’t even dig the drainage properly and built the shelters on flat ground, allowing rainwater to get in and making them useless,” he added. “Others fled to the forest instead of sheltering at home. So it’s quite rare to find a properly constructed bomb shelter at people’s homes. This is one of the issues that needs to be addressed.” In September, at least 93 civilians were killed in airstrikes in Myanmar as the military continued targeting areas lost to resistance fighters or where they suspected anti-junta armed groups to be concentrated.

Myanmar military’s air, artillery strikes kill eight in Gangaw District

Regime forces deployed warplanes, drones, and heavy artillery to fire on civilian targets in all three townships of Magway Region’s Gangaw District, including two auto repair shops

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