One killed, many injured as Myanmar air force bombs Lashio

Subscribe to the Myanmar Now daily newsletter. It's free. Sign up > The military conducted a third round of airstrikes on Monday in Lashio, the administrative capital of northern Shan State currently controlled by an anti-junta armed group, the city’s residents said. Similar air raids had occurred the previous day and on August 30 in an apparent counterattack by the regime against the forces of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) or Kokang army, the armed organisation that captured the city at the end of July. According to Lashio residents, at approximately 10:30am on Monday, junta aircraft dropped two bombs on Ward 1—the area of the city nearest to the general administration office—and another near the entrance of the military’s Northeastern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters, which junta forces lost to the Kokang army six weeks ago. The explosion near the general administration office damaged some buildings on the office compound and killed a local man in his 50s. Around 15 people were injured, a man living in Lashio said. He added that none of the injured were in critical condition, and that identifying details about the deceased man were unconfirmed. Another man who witnessed the aftermath of the bombing said the general administration’s façade had sustained damage and that the roof had been blown off. The bombing on this occasion seemed to be aimed at predetermined targets, he added, contrasting Monday’s airstrikes with earlier attacks that appeared to be indiscriminate. “This time, the junta did not attack randomly,” he said. “They appeared to have specific targets, identifying which locations to bomb and focusing on one or two key sites.” The air force also dropped bombs twice around 4am on Sunday in Ward 12, in the town’s northern limits. The bombs landed and exploded near the Silver Sky Hotel and at a stadium. The stadium—used by a police force connected with the MNDAA to impound and safeguard vehicles stolen from Lashio residents during the chaotic battle for Lashio—sustained heavy damage from the bombing, sources connected to the MNDAA said, with bomb blasts destroying four lorries and fifteen cars and causing damage to other vehicles. The bomb that exploded near the Silver Sky Hotel also damaged the hotel’s main building and its interior. Junta planes also carried out two airstrikes that destroyed a school and a house in Ward 9 on August 30. The MNDAA captured the Northeastern RMC headquarters within a month of resuming offensive operations against the military in northern Shan State, defying expectations among the army and most of its supporters in Myanmar that junta forces would be able to defend Lashio and keep the command centre secure. Following the fall of Lashio and the Northeastern RMC, junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and other high-ranking generals chose to respond with retaliatory airstrikes on captured territories, according to Captain Zin Yaw, a defector from the Myanmar Army who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement opposing the 2021 coup. Recalling their loss of Laukkai, another town in northern Shan State, due to poorly conducted air raids, the junta generals were determined to use the air force to greater effect elsewhere in the state to regain their strategic advantage over the anti-junta fighters, Captain Zin Yaw said. After the MNDAA and allied forces captured Lashio, Myanmar’s largest ethnic armed organisation the United Wa State Army stationed some of its troops in the city, citing the need to protect its local liaison office and safeguard the group’s interests in the area. Still in control of Lashio after seizing it from the military more than a month ago, the MNDAA claims to be leading repairs, reconstruction, and the establishment of a functioning administrative apparatus in the city.

One killed, many injured as Myanmar air force bombs Lashio

The military carried out retaliatory airstrikes for a third time in northern Shan State’s capital, where the anti-junta forces who seized the city more than a month ago claim to be making repairs and putting mechanisms for local governance in place

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