Nine civilians killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes after ruby mining resumes in Mogok

Junta airstrikes on the ruby-mining centre of Mogok in northern Mandalay Region left at least nine civilians dead and more than a dozen others injured on Tuesday, according to local sources. Residents said that two warplanes dropped two 500-pound bombs on the town early in the day, following a surveillance flight carried out by a Y-12 aircraft at around 11pm on Monday. Casualties were reported in residential areas of both eastern and western Mogok, according to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the ethnic armed group controlling the town. “Five people died and eight suffered injuries in western Mogok, while four died and another five were wounded in the eastern part of town,” said a member of the TNLA’s information team. The group said it had identified five men and three women among the dead, but could not provide any further information at the time of reporting. At least one of the injured was a child, local sources told Myanmar Now. According to a man living in eastern Mogok’s Lel U Ward, some of the victims who survived the attack sustained serious injuries. “Some people were badly injured, including one person who lost a leg and another who lost a hand,” the man said. Photos and videos posted on Facebook show a large crater left behind by one of the bombs, as well as a number of buildings that had been badly damaged or destroyed. The attack comes a week after the TNLA, a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, announced the resumption of small-scale mining operations in the area. TNLA-led forces captured the western part of Mogok on June 30 following the collapse of a ceasefire agreement with the military regime brokered by China in early January, before taking full control of the town on July 24. Since then, living conditions in Mogok have returned to normal, according to a recent visitor. “I was there not very long ago, and the town was functioning more or less normally. The military bombed it just because they had lost control of their vital mining business in Mogok,” the visitor, who is close to the TNLA, said. Meanwhile, serious clashes were also reported in Mandalay Region’s Thabeikkyin and Madaya townships, west of Mogok, on Tuesday.

Nine civilians killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes after ruby mining resumes in Mogok

The attacks come a week after the TNLA, the ethnic armed group in control of the town, announced that it would allow locals to engage in small-scale mining

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