Pregnant woman, four children among 14 killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes in KNU territory

Three days of airstrikes by Myanmar’s military killed 14 civilians, including a pregnant woman and four children, and injured 23 others in Karen State and Tanintharyi Region earlier this week, according to sources. The attacks began at around 10:30pm on March 8, when a 23-year-old woman and her mother were killed by bombs dropped on Mae Kaw Law, a village in Karen State’s Hpapun District, the territory of Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 5. The husband of the younger woman, who was pregnant, and her two-year-old daughter were also injured in the attack, the Karen Women’s Organisation said in a statement released on Monday. Three other villages in Hpapun District were targeted the next day at around 1pm, killing two women and a three-year-old girl and injuring six others, a spokesperson for KNU Brigade 5 told Myanmar Now. The attacks on both days also destroyed or damaged several houses and churches, he added. On Tuesday, more deaths were reported in KNU Brigade 4 territory in Tanintharyi Region. Four people, including a child, were killed and 12 others were injured when a fighter jet dropped four bombs on the village of Ta Ku shortly after noon, according to the KNU, which was unable to provide any further details at the time of reporting. People injured in an airstrike in the KNU’s Hpapun District (Photo: Mutraw Mobile–English Edition) A separate attack that took place at around the same time claimed five more lives in Ta Phi Lay Kho, a village in Tanintharyi’s Palaw Township, according to Padoh Saw Eh Na, secretary of the KNU’s Myeik-Dawei District. The deceased were identified as a six-year-old girl, two 11-year-old boys, and two men in their 40s, while the injured were three 13-year-old boys, he told Myanmar Now on Wednesday. “The airstrike targeted a church in Ta Phi Lay Kho, killing three children and two adults, and injuring three more children,” he said, noting that this was the regime’s second recent attack on a church in Myeik-Dawei District. “We have seen the junta escalate attacks on civilian buildings and villages to intimidate the public and discourage support for the resistance forces,” he said. A resident of Ta Phi Lay Kho said the airstrike clearly targeted the church, which was hosting a summer holiday class for children. “There was no fighting or military activity in the village, so we don’t understand why they carried out this airstrike. But it constitutes a war crime, and we will not accept it,” he said. According to Padoh Saw Eh Na, the regime also conducted airstrikes on Wednesday in Thayetchaung Township, where a monastery building was destroyed in an attack last week. The regime has been intensifying its military operations in Thayetchaung Township since the first week of January, leading to a number of incidents that have resulted in civilian deaths. On February 27, seven people were killed after coming into contact with a junta column near Son Sin Hpyar, a village on the Dawei-Myeik road. In addition to Tanintharyi Region, where the junta is attempting to retake the town of Mawdaung and the Htee Khee border trade gate captured by KNU-led forces last year, the military has been intensifying its offensives in eastern Bago Region, where the KNU also has a strong presence. Last week, junta troops captured and killed at least 40 civilians in Bago’s Nyaunglebin Township, which is KNU Brigade 3 territory. Resistance forces active in the area rescued hundreds of others who had been taken hostage. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by conflict in KNU territories, according to a statement released by the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People in January.

Pregnant woman, four children among 14 killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes in KNU territory

Nearly two dozen other civilians were also injured in the attacks, which were carried out over a period of three consecutive days

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