POWs, elderly villagers among victims of Myanmar junta’s air and artillery attacks

At least a dozen prisoners of war were killed on Monday in the deadliest of a series of air and artillery attacks carried out by Myanmar’s military in recent days, according to sources. In a statement, the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (MDY-PDF) said that an airstrike on a POW camp in the village of Hokho in Shan State’s Nawnghkio Township late Monday left 12 people, including nine prisoners, dead and another 60 injured. “The POWs were being held in accordance with the law when the junta airstrike deliberately targeted them,” the group claimed in its statement. The incident comes less than two months after dozens of captured soldiers being held by the Arakan Army (AA) in northern Rakhine State were killed by regime airstrikes in early September. Monday’s attack came a day after the first anniversary of the launch of Operation 1027, an anti-junta offensive that has resulted in major defeats for the regime across northern Shan State and other regions over the past year. Security was reportedly tightened in the military stronghold of Pyin Oo Lwin, about 35 miles southwest of Nawnghkio, on Sunday amid rumours of planned attacks to mark the anniversary. Nawnghkio is about 75 miles northeast of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city. Fighting has reached the northern outskirts of the city, resulting in reports of heavy civilian casualties, most recently on Saturday, from junta airstrikes. Meanwhile, there were also reports of two people being killed by heavy artillery fire in Mandalay Region’s Natogyi Township, about 60 miles southwest of Mandalay, on Monday. The victims, both in their 50s, were a married couple living in the village of Hta Naung Pin, residents of the area told Myanmar Now. They were hit by a shell fired by junta soldiers from the police station in Natogyi, the sources said. Natogyi Township is part of Mandalay Region’s Myingyan District, which has seen heavy fighting since early August as part of an offensive by resistance groups active in the area. However, no clashes were reported at the time of Monday’s attack. On Sunday, the regime carried out airstrikes in Magway Region’s Chauk Township, about 130 miles southwest of Mandalay, killing two displaced civilians and three anti-junta fighters, according to local resistance sources. “Two elderly people, in their 60s or 70s, stopped at a monastery because they couldn’t run any farther. They thought they would be safe there,” said a member of the Chauk Revolution Army. According to the group, most of the monastery, located in the village of Ywar Ma, was destroyed by the airstrikes, which were carried out in response to clashes that began last Friday. Over the weekend, dozens of houses were destroyed by fire in Ywar Ma and other villages in the area, locals told Myanmar Now. Residents of at least 20 villages have fled the fighting, they added. Chauk, located on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River, has seen a heavy build-up of regime forces in recent weeks as the junta seeks to push back against the expanding influence of resistance forces in the area. Clashes have also broken out in neighbouring Salin Township, where a 17-year-old resistance fighter was reportedly killed during fighting on Sunday. Although it has few major urban centres, Magway Region is considered key to the junta’s war effort, as it is host to more than half of its 25 arms manufacturing facilities, most of which are situated along the Ayeyarwady River. The area will become even more strategically important to the regime if the AA succeeds in capturing the Western Regional Military Command in Rakhine State’s Ann Township, according to military observers.

POWs, elderly villagers among victims of Myanmar junta’s air and artillery attacks

The regime has stepped up its assaults in resistance-held area as it continues to face pressure a year after the launch of a major anti-junta offensive

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