Myanmar military’s airstrikes on Hsipaw, Mawchi kill eight civilians

Junta jet fighters bombed northern Shan State’s Hsipaw Township and Mawchi village tract in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Hpasawng Township on Monday, causing at least eight civilian deaths, according to local residents. The airstrikes targeting the mining quarter around Mawchi, Hpasawng Township occurred around 2pm on Monday, initially killing five women and another civilian and injuring three more people, according to Banyar, a second secretary of the Karenni State Interim Executive Council. “Five women died on the spot. A man died while walking on the road," Banyar said. One man and one woman later succumbed to their injuries, while a third civilian was wounded but survived, he said, and the homes of mine workers were destroyed. The junta’s air force had previously bombed the village of Loe Law Htee in the Mawchi village tract on July 9 at around 7pm, injuring three civilians and killing a family of five including two children aged three and eight. Mawchi, which is under the control of Karenni Nationalities Defence Forces (KNDF) resistance fighters, produces tin and tungsten, which is used in both goods for the consumer market and military equipment, ranging from food tins to missiles. Junta forces have repeatedly attacked Mawchi, conducting aerial attacks on the village track five times between April and June 2024, and four times in 2025. On the morning of June 25, an airstrike on the Mawchi area killed at least seven people, including miners, and injured more than 20. The junta also bombed downtown Hsipaw, northern Shan State on Monday, according to a spokesperson for the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), which currently controls the town. The air killed one Hsipaw resident and injured others, according to TNLA spokesperson Lway Yay Oo. “They dropped bombs near the Nang Devi tea shop in downtown Hsipaw,” he said. “A person died and there were injuries. We are continuing to investigate the aftermath.” Hsipaw residents claimed there had in fact been two civilian deaths. The bombs hit the Tai House Hotel and the town’s main street, he said, killing two people including one who was in a roadside phone shop at the time, they said. The Myanmar military is currently concentrating its attacks on another northern Shan State town, Nawnghkio, located some 50 miles southwest of Hsipaw on the Mandalay-Muse highway. Its air force has stepped up its attacks on most TNLA-controlled towns including Kyaukme, Nawnghkio, and Mogok in Mandalay Region, as well as in Hsipaw, causing many civilian casualties. Frontline commanders and leaders of the TNLA and its anti-junta allies are assessing the tactical situation in Nawnghkio, according to Lway Yay Oo, after the military appeared poised to take over the town from the TNLA in its entirety on Monday. Myanmar Now contacted the TNLA to inquire about claims that junta forces had gained control of two Nawnghkio wards and the TNLA was withdrawing its forces from the town. “Our forces are still in Nawnghkio,” Lway Yay Oo responded. “As of now, we are in a position where we can maintain control. Fighting continues in the surrounding areas.” The TNLA and its allies captured Nawnghkio, which has a population of around 140,000 according to the most recent estimates, from regime forces in July 2024 after launching the second phase of Operation 1027, a sweeping offensive campaign against the Myanmar military that began in late 2023. The TNLA held control of Nawnghkio for about a year, according to local residents, before columns of junta troops advanced into the town from the south and seized the Taung and Pa Hat wards this past Sunday.

Myanmar military’s airstrikes on Hsipaw, Mawchi kill eight civilians

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) controls Hsipaw, northern Shan State—one of the junta’s targets in the bombing—and said its forces were still present in Nawnghkio, northern Shan State despite claims that regime forces took full control of the town this week

Subscribe for full access

‘Will it be different this time, Grandson?’

Across a border and into a war: A Karenni leader’s final journey

When going home is impossible: Myanmar nationals find solace in Singapore’s Peninsula Plaza

The Russian general behind Moscow’s decades-long military courtship of Myanmar

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Battle for Sittwe flares up as AA advances from Ponnagyun

Myanmar worker dies after fleeing Thai police raid at Bangkok-area construction site

India court grants bail to US citizen accused of illegal entry

Two fishing boats destroyed as Myanmar military intensifies activity around Sittwe