Regime conducts deadly airstrike in Chin State as battles with anti-junta alliance drag on

Junta airstrikes killed six civilians in Falam Township, Chin State this week while clashes that began earlier this month continued in the state’s Mindat Township more than a hundred miles to the south. The civilians, including one woman, were killed when junta bombs hit a clinic in Falam Township’s Lumte village, according to local sources and human rights advocates based in Chin State. The same sources claimed that there had been no recent clashes near the village, which is located around 20 miles east of Falam, a junta-controlled town currently under assault by anti-junta groups. “The bomb hit a clinic at around 2pm yesterday. All of the deceased were civilians who were seeking medical care at the clinic,” a representative of the Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) said. A church and several houses in the village were also damaged by the junta airstrike, according to the CHRO. At the same time, the Chin Brothers Alliance continued to battle military forces in Mindat Township in southern Chin State three weeks after fighting broke out in the area, causing extensive damage to infrastructure and civilian homes. The fighting has damaged hundreds of houses, according to local sources, especially around a junta-controlled police station on the east side of Mindat. “Roughly 200 houses in civilian residential areas were damaged by arson attacks, artillery shelling, and airstrikes carried out by the military,” said a representative of the Mindat Township-based management committee for assisting internally displaced persons (IDPs). According to locals, houses near the junta’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 274 base—less than two miles west of Mindat Township’s urban centre—also sustained damage last month from fires set by junta troops. The junta’s soldiers are still present at ten or more locations throughout the town of Mindat. Some army units are still fending off attacks, while others have been defeated by Chinland Defence Forces of Mindat (CDF-Mindat), another anti-junta group that is not a member of the Chin Brothers Alliance. The Chin Brothers Alliance was formed in December 2023, and comprises the Chin National Council (Mindat), Chin National Organisation, Zomi Federal Union, CDF-Kanpetlet, CDF-Matupi Brigade 1, and Maraland Territorial Council. “As far as we know, almost all positions still held by junta troops are now under attack,” a representative of the Mindat Township People’s Administrative Team (PAT) said. “Battles have also broken out again at the IB-274 base.” However, the details about the clashes remain unconfirmed as the Chin Brothers Alliance has not released information about ongoing clashes in which they are involved. https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/food-scarce-for-orphans-prisoners-families-in-chin-brothers-alliance-custody/ Junta warplanes have reportedly carried out multiple airstrikes and rocket attacks in Mindat Township during the fighting to repel the anti-junta forces. “The town has been hit by highly destructive munitions including 500-pound bombs. At least six bombs were dropped in a single raid last week,” the Mindat Township PAT representative said on Tuesday. The few civilians remaining in and near Mindat’s urban wards, trapped amid intensifying battles in the town, are sheltering in makeshift bunkers under their houses or in nearby fields, local sources said. “It’s impossible for people to move about freely outside, so they are subsisting on food they stored in advance,” said the spokesperson for the local IDP management committee. Mindat Township, located in Chin State in Myanmar’s northwest, is made up of four urban wards and 46 rural village tracts and had an estimated population of 42,000 two years before the 2021 coup, the last time reliable estimates were available. The township’s rural areas, which are under the control of the Chinland Defence Forces of Mindat (CDF-Mindat) and other anti-regime forces, have become targets of frequent attacks by the regime’s air force. The Chin Brothers Alliance took over Matupi, Chin State, a town located around 40 miles northwest of Mindat, in late June of this year.

Regime conducts deadly airstrike in Chin State as battles with anti-junta alliance drag on

Six civilians died in an airstrike on a clinic in Falam, while the military continued bombing and shelling to repel anti-regime forces’ assaults on Mindat around 100 miles to the south

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