Small child among civilians killed in clash on Monywa-Mandalay road

A exchanged of fire broke out between junta and resistance forces in Chaung-U Township, Sagaing Region last Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of two travellers and a small child and on the Monywa-Mandalay road, locals said.Two other civilians were also reportedly injured in the fighting, which began around 3:30pm after resistance fighters intercepted two junta armoured vehicles carrying some 30 soldiers outside of Chaung-U. Junta troops nearby, hearing that the resistance forces had stopped their armoured vehicles, reportedly responded by commandeering a passenger bus, riding to the scene, and taking cover behind the bus during an ensuing shootout. As the soldiers fired at resistance forces from behind the bus, stray shots killed a woman in her 50s and injured other passengers. Soon after the exchange of fire subsided, a paramotor flew in from the military’s nearby Northwestern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters in Monywa and dropped a bomb near where the exchange of fire had occurred, killing a one-and-a-half-year-old child and the child’s mother, resistance sources said.“The junta reinforcements arrived in a bus, which they hijacked at gunpoint, forcing the driver to take them to the place where the battle broke out,” said Ko Thant, a spokesperson for the Chaung-U Township People’s Defence Forces (PDF), citing first-hand accounts from the bus passengers and fighters who had taken part in the battle.“After reaching the area, they opened fire. But they retreated after realising they were not in an advantageous position,” he added.Locals confirmed that junta troops from Nat Yae Kan base stopped an express bus en route from Naypyitaw to Monywa with around 10 passengers aboard. They then took the bus around two miles towards the site of the ambush. “As far as we knew, the resistance fighters were firing because the soldiers had boarded and taken the bus,” said one local resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.Kyi Thein, a company commander of the Chaung-U PDF who was present at the scene of the shootout, said that soldiers arrived in the express bus and started shooting before the resistance fighters. “The bus stopped before it reached the armoured vehicles. At first, we didn’t return fire since there were civilians on board,” he said. “But then, they started shooting from inside the bus and some soldiers got out to fire from underneath and behind it. That’s when we started shooting back.”Resistance forces ultimately gained the upper hand, forcing the junta troops to withdraw. While the bus passengers were being moved to a field beside the road, a paramotor arrived and dropped two bombs, killing a mother and her child, according to the Chaung-U PDF.“The mother and child were alive when we moved them away from the fighting,” said Kyi Thein. “We escorted them in ditches beside the road, but then a paramotor gliding overhead dropped bombs.”The mother died when she was struck in the head by shrapnel, he said, and several resistance fighters were also injured. “The bomb exploded between her and me,” Kyi Thein said, referring to the child’s mother. “A cloud of dust formed, so I didn’t see her fall. When the dust cleared, I saw that she had been hit.”On that day, junta troops also fired artillery shells from the agricultural office and a nearby base in Chaung-U, according to the Chaung-U PDF, which also reported two paramotor flights from the Northwestern RMC in Monywa. The fighting resulted in the deaths of 17 soldiers including a second lieutenant, while 10 survived and ultimately withdrew from the scene. The two junta armoured vehicles were burned and rendered inoperable, and resistance fighters reported seizing rifles, heavy weapons, and ammunition from the troops. Weapons and ammunition seized in the clash in Chaung-U Township (Photo: Yadanarbon Revolutionary Force [YRF]) Participating resistance forces included both PDF and members of the local People’s Defence Organisation under the command of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG), as well as fighters of the Student Armed Force (SAF), the Yadanarbon Revolutionary Force (YRF), and others from various Sagaing and Mandalay Region townships. The slain mother and child were from Monywa. The mother died at the scene while the child died a short time later. The day after the clash, posts on pro-junta propaganda channels on Telegram claimed civilians had been killed when a passenger bus triggered a landmine on the Monywa-Mandalay road near Ngar Shan village, some three miles southeast of Chaung-U and 15 miles southeast of Monywa.The resistance denied these allegations.“There was no landmine attack,” Ko Thant said. “If we had used a landmine, everyone on the bus would have been killed, not just two people.”After the fighting ended that day, a novice monk was injured in Kyi Kone village when junta forces in Chaung-U shelled the village. There had been no recent fighting in or near the village. The Monywa-Mandalay road is a strategically important route connecting command centres for the miltiary’s operations in Chin State and Sagaing and Magway regions. The junta controls the road in the area near the Sagaing-Mandalay regional line, maintaining a number of base camps along the roadside.Despite the strength of their security measures, junta supply and reinforcement convoys on the road have become frequent targets of resistance attacks. According to a local civilian, junta soldiers often travel among civilian passengers on the route. “When it was time for travel, they would just get on any available vehicle,” he said. “Even though the drivers might ask them not to, the junta troops would get on anyway and demand that they change their destination. The drivers would have no choice but to obey.” “Since both are active along this road, clashes are common,” he added, referring to the military and armed resistance. “It’s best to avoid travelling unless it’s essential.”The junta’s use of paramotors—or powered paragliders—for aerial attacks has increased since the appointment of Brig-Gen Myo Min Htwe as the Northwestern RMC commander. Myo Min Htwe received the post after losing and surrendering the junta’s Northeastern RMC in Lashio, northern Shan State to anti-junta forces in August 2024, during the second phase of the Brotherhood Alliance’s “Operation 1027” offensive against the junta.

Small child among civilians killed in clash on Monywa-Mandalay road

Fighters intercepted two junta armoured vehicles, leading to an intense shootout and paramotor attack that killed a civilian bus passenger, a mother, and her child, who was under two years old

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