Myanmar military’s airstrikes continue in territory captured by Brotherhood Alliance

Junta aerial attacks on northern Shan State’s Lashio and Hsipaw townships killed one man and injured more than a dozen over the weekend, according to local aid workers and anti-regime ethnic armed groups. A statement issued by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which currently controls Hsipaw Township, claimed that a junta fighter jet bombed Hsipaw’s urban wards on Saturday, killing a man in his 50s and injuring two other civilians. At least eight more civilians including two children were also injured by airstrikes in the village of Loi Kyaing some 47 miles southeast of Hsipaw, according to the TNLA statement. Local aid groups and rescue workers said that the village of Ton Hsint, located on the outskirts of Hsipaw near the military’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 23 base, was also hit repeatedly by junta artillery and airstrikes. Although anti-regime forces led by the TNLA have held control of Hsipaw Township’s urban centre since early August, clashes for control of the battalion base are ongoing at the edge of town. Last week, a civilian man also suffered injuries when artillery shells hit a motel in Nawk Kat village less than two miles southwest of Hsipaw on Friday. A man also suffered injuries two days earlier when artillery shells landed over a motel in Nawk Kat Village, less than 2 miles southwest of Hsipaw and some 16 miles northeast of the TNLA-controlled town of Kyaukme. At least four people including a seven-year-old child were also killed in junta airstrikes in Hsipaw Township between September 28 and 30. Clashes have raged in Hsipaw Township since early August as the TNLA, one of three ethnic armed organisations making up the Brotherhood Alliance, resumed hostilities with junta forces in northern Shan State on June 25, ending a temporary ceasefire brokered by the Chinese government in January. Anti-regime forces have captured two army bases in Hsipaw Township—the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 503 and LIB 504 bases—since taking control of the township’s urban centre. Damage caused by airstrikes in Hsipaw (Photo: TNLA Information Team) Since late June, the TNLA has also captured four towns from junta forces in Mandalay Region and northern Shan State, including Kyaukme and Hsipaw. A fellow member of the TNLA in the Brotherhood Alliance—the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) or “Kokang army”—also resumed offensive operations against junta forces, capturing the city of Lashio, which is northern Shan State’s largest city and the site of the Myanmar army’s Northeastern Regional Military Command headquarters. Many areas of northern Shan State captured from junta forces, especially Lashio, have become targets of retaliatory airstrikes by the military regime’s air force in recent months, hindering the MNDAA’s efforts to reconstruct and restore order in the city. The most recent airstrikes in Lashio damaged several buildings on the campus of the University of Computer Studies near Mehan village on Saturday and several houses in Ward 5 near Mang Aing village the next day. A Chinese Buddhist temple and several houses were also damaged in junta airstrikes the previous Friday, local sources said, and at least two civilians sustained injuries. Chinese Buddhist temple hit by junta airstrike in Lashio (Photo: Lashio Reconstruction Facebook Page) While Chinese officials mediated the previous ceasefire between the Brotherhood Alliance and military junta in January and were thought to have ties with both the junta and anti-junta ethnic armed groups, China is showing signs of moving towards stronger support for the junta. The MNDAA issued a statement last month distancing itself from the anti-junta resistance, saying its offensive against the military would not extend to Taunggyi in southern Shan State and that it did not plan to cooperate with the publicly mandated National Unity Government, the cabinet of civilian leaders formed to oppose the 2021 coup. The MNDAA may have issued the statement under pressure from the Chinese government, which has stated its interest in restoring stability and security in Myanmar. China has also pressed the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the ethnic armed with the largest membership in Shan State, to stop the flow of arms, ammunition, and supplies to territories controlled by the TNLA and MNDAA, according to documents seen by Myanmar Now.

Myanmar military’s airstrikes continue in territory captured by Brotherhood Alliance

The military regime’s airstrikes, targeting territory captured from junta forces this year, occurred amid growing pressure from China on anti-junta armed groups to end hostilities with the junta and restore internal stability in Myanmar

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