Myanmar military’s shelling kills four civilians north of Mandalay

Four people have been killed in areas under heavy artillery fire in Madaya Township, Mandalay Region as resistance forces captured seven military outposts in late July, locals said. The deaths occurred during two separate bouts of shelling on July 24 and 30 in Tha Pyay Pin Kone village just over a mile east of Madaya’s urban centre and some 20 miles north of Mandalay on the Mandalay-Myitkyina road. Than Win, a villager living in Tha Pyay Pin Kone, was gathering vegetables from a garden when she was killed instantly by an exploding shell at around 7am on July 30, a woman from Madaya said. "The shell landed near her while she was picking ridged gourd close to her home. The explosion was so close it beheaded her; it was very bad luck,” the woman said the next day. “She has already been buried. Now, everyone in that village is terrified and fleeing for safety.” The Madaya local added that hundreds of junta troops, who had been stationed about a mile away in Kan Hpyu village, had been shelling the surrounding area every day using heavy artillery. In a similar incident six days earlier, exploding shells killed Daw Yi, 70, and her daughter Lae Yi Win, 45, in Tha Pyay Pin Kone. When villagers came to inspect the damage, another artillery shell landed, killing a villager named Aung Kyaw Htun. The mother and daughter were reportedly internally displaced persons (IDPs) travelling from nearby Singu Township after clashes there forced them to flee their homes. "The mother and daughter fell victim after being displaced. The elderly woman was beheaded,” the local woman from Madaya said. “The villagers went to look because they hadn’t been able to retrieve the bodies yet, then another artillery shell was fired off as they were leaving. That's when it hit Ko Aung Kyaw Htun, killing him.” Both Lae Yi Win and Aung Kyaw Htun died from shrapnel wounds to the head. Junta forces have reportedly targeted villages suspected of harbouring or supporting enemy forces, but the junta often issues statements denying reports of civilian casualties from shelling. The military council has yet to release any statements regarding the recent shelling incidents or casualties in Madaya Township, and Myanmar Now has also been unable to reach its spokespersons for comment. The Mandalay People’s Defence Forces (MDY-PDF)—an armed resistance group operating in the region under the command of the publicly mandated National Unity Government—has engaged in public outreach to educate civilians on avoiding or minimising the danger from artillery and aerial attacks. The group’s public relations and organising department distributed an instructional online safety video in the last week of July. Resistance members have put up flyers warning of the danger from junta shells and bombs in some Madaya Township villages (Photo: MDY-PDF) MDY-PDF captures seven more outposts MDY-PDF spokesperson Osmond told Myanmar Now that the group had overrun seven of the regime forces’ outposts in Madaya Township in the last two weeks of July. “That’s just the number of outposts we've seized in the past two weeks,” he said on Wednesday. “In Madaya Township, we now control 35 outposts altogether.” The junta bases that the resistance fighters seized most recently were located in the villages of War Lone Pyun, Taung Kan, Aung Tha Pyay Village, Myo Kone, Htan Pin Kone, Bo Kone, and Aung Tha Pyay. The group also announced on Wednesday that it would carry on its assaults on designated army targets in Madaya Township, adding that fighting is several villages is ongoing as resistance forces carry on an offensive aimed at taking full territorial control of Madaya Township, Mandalay Region. Clashes between the MDY-PDF and junta forces have spread as far as Wa Thon Da Ra village, some 13 miles north of Mandalay. A humanitarian group assisting displaced people in Madaya Township said there had been injuries and deaths amid the intensifying battles. "There are many casualties. Due to communication difficulties and displacements, we can't provide exact numbers at the moment," a woman working for the organisation said. The growing number of IDPs in Madaya has caused scarcities of food and medicine, she added. “We’re currently providing aid to around 600 recently displaced people, divided in three groups of about 200 each. Some are staying with relatives in nearby areas," the aid worker said, adding, “Food and medical supplies are the most pressing needs. We're not sure how much longer we can sustain this operation as time goes on.”

Myanmar military’s shelling kills four civilians north of Mandalay

Two of the victims killed by heavy artillery in Madaya Township were internally displaced people, forced to flee their homes by intensifying clashes in a nearby township

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