Three children injured in Myanmar junta airstrike on Karenni school

At least three students were injured on Friday when a junta warplane bombed a school in Karenni State’s Hpasawng Township, where resistance forces are fighting to capture the regime’s last remaining base in the area. Local sources told Myanmar Now that the children were wounded when their middle school in a riverside village less than 10 miles from the town of Hpasawng was hit by an airstrike at around 9am. “A Y-12 aircraft dropped bombs on the school while students were taking their tests,” said Banyar Khun Aung, spokesperson for the Karenni Interim Executive Council, which administers resistance-held territory in the state. “We still do not know the exact number of civilian casualties, as some children remain unaccounted for.” One of the victims, a 12-year-old boy, sustained a serious injury to his thigh and is in critical condition, he added. Kantarawaddy Times, a local media outlet, reported that shrapnel injured two boys and a girl at the school. Further details were not available at the time of reporting. The junta warplane reportedly carried out multiple aerial assaults on villages in the area, resulting in damage to the school and a religious building, as well as to several houses. The school remained open despite recent fighting because the decision on whether to close was left to the school council and community elders, according to local sources. “The village was targeted for the first time today, so they might not have had enough time to run away. Or maybe they just didn’t notice the warplane, because they often fly over the area to bomb Hpasawng,” said Banyar Khun Aung. The current conflict in Hpasawng Township began in late June, when anti-junta forces led by the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force began launching simultaneous attacks on the regime’s last two bases in the area. In early July, resistance forces captured the Infantry Battalion (IB) 134 base in Hpasawng and claimed to have shot down a junta warplane that crashed amid intense clashes. Fighting for control of the IB 135 base continues, even as the regime intensifies its air raids to defend it. Airstrikes have killed at least 13 civilians in the township since the fighting began. In late June, an attack on a small-scale mine in Maw Chee (Mawchi), located about 15 miles southwest of the town of Hpasawng, left at least eight people dead. Five more civilians, including two children, were killed in early July by bombs dropped near a church in Loe Law Htee, a village roughly 12 miles northeast of Hpasawng. The Karenni Human Rights Group estimates that junta airstrikes killed at least 14 people in Karenni State last month.

Three children injured in Myanmar junta airstrike on Karenni school

The attack comes as the regime intensifies its efforts to retain control of its last base in Karenni State’s Hpasawng Township

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