Two women killed as Myanmar regime continues attacks on AA-controlled towns

Myanmar’s military has continued to target towns under the control of the Arakan Army (AA), killing two women in the southern Chin State town of Paletwa on Monday, sources reported. A resident told Myanmar Now that bombs were dropped on a hospital in the town at around 12:30pm, killing the women instantly and injuring at least 16 others. “They dropped two 500-pound bombs on the hospital and the downtown area, killing two women,” the resident said. About an hour later, junta forces based in the Rakhine State capital Sittwe launched artillery strikes on several villages in neighbouring Rathedaung Township, including Sar Pyin Chay, Sar Pyin Gyi, Zee Kaing, and Kyet Yoe Seik, a source there reported. A 35-year-old woman and a nine-year-old child were injured in the attacks, the source said. A day earlier, the regime conducted further assaults on Thandwe, in southern Rakhine State, following an incident on Saturday that left at least one resident dead. At around 11:25pm on Sunday, airstrikes hit Pa De Kaw, a village about four miles south of the town, injuring a 22-year-old man, according to a local resident. Six rounds of artillery were also fired at the village from ships situated just off the coast, he added. “I believe they are threatening Thandwe because the regime has said it plans to hold elections here,” the resident said. Despite controlling only three of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, including Sittwe, Myanmar’s junta-controlled election commission has announced that four townships in the state—Thandwe, Ann, Taungup, and Gwa—will be included in elections slated for the end of this year. Last Friday, an airstrike on Taungup destroyed a local monastery. Earlier in the month, an attack on a high school in Kyauktaw Township left at least 22 people—most of them students at the school—dead. At a press conference in August, AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha said that 926 civilians had been killed and 1,954 injured in acts perpetrated by the Myanmar military regime since the start of the present conflict in Rakhine State in November 2023. In addition to capturing 14 townships in Rakhine State, the AA has also taken control of Paletwa in neighbouring Chin State and made incursions into areas of Ayeyarwady, Magway, and Bago regions bordering Rakhine.

Two women killed as Myanmar regime continues attacks on AA-controlled towns

The junta has been stepping up its attacks in the country’s west as it pushes to include areas not under its control in upcoming elections

Subscribe for full access

After 100 days of ‘civilian’ rule, Myanmar remains a bastion of oppression

‘We cannot write as before’: Women poets of Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Sent to die: Myanmar’s conscripts caught between a junta’s war and a nation’s collapse

Magway emerges as key front in junta’s strategy to claw back control of western Myanmar

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Ethnic armed groups say ASEAN envoy meeting was not dialogue with Myanmar junta

Flooding compounds humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State as aid needs grow

MNDAA hands 41 POWs to Myanmar junta in Lashio amid ongoing talks

Myanmar resistance resumes attacks north of Mandalay as junta expands offensives to the south