Junta air and artillery attacks killed at least nine people and injured more than two dozen others south of the Sagaing Region capital Monywa on Wednesday, local residents and resistance forces said.
The attacks began at around 7:30pm, when troops stationed at a regime outpost in the village of Ma-U, on the southern edge of Monywa, began shelling Bu Ba, a village some four miles to the south, killing at least two women.
This was followed a little more than an hour later by air raids on four other villages farther south in Monywa and Chaung-U townships, sources told Myanmar Now.
In Thit Seint, one of the targeted villages, two people were killed and four were injured, according to a local resident.
“A man and a woman from Nyaung Hpyu Pin were also killed on the spot when bombs landed right beside their house in the northwestern part of the village,” the resident added.
The plane continued south to neighbouring Chaung-U Township, where it dropped bombs on the village of Ku Lar Gyi, killing three people, including two children.
“A man in his 70s, a five-year-old boy, and an eight-year-old girl were killed as bombs landed on their makeshift shelter,” a representative of Chaung-U Township’s Defence Team said.
Sources in the affected villages said that the death toll was expected to rise, as a number of the victims were critically injured.
Following the bombing raids, a column of regime troops departed from Taw Pu, a village controlled by the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia, in order to reinforce the police station in Nyaung Hpyu Pin, resistance sources said.
Along the way, the column split into two groups—one entering Nyaung Hpyu Pin at around 2am on Thursday, and the other heading for Bu Ba, according to a member of a local defence team.
The police station in Nyaung Hpyu Pin had been the target of recent attacks by anti-regime groups active in the area, according to a local man.
“The village and the police station were besieged by resistance forces, but they’ve had to retreat now after the junta airstrikes,” the man said.
Most residents of the area have also been forced to flee, as the regime continued its attacks on Thursday.
“A Y-12 aircraft bombed Nyaung Phyu Pin, Bu Ba, and Gyoe Su at around 5am this morning. A surveillance aircraft is still hovering above us,” a local man told Myanmar Now.
It was unclear if these attacks resulted in further casualties.
A junta aerial assault also reportedly injured two teenage girls in Salingyi Township, west of Monywa, on Thursday morning. No further details were available at the time of reporting.
