At least 20 civilians including children and senior citizens were killed over the past five days as Myanmar junta forces continued their arbitrary killings, shelling of residential areas and burning of villages in retaliation for battlefield losses to nationwide anti-regime resistance groups and ethnic armies.
The resistance groups claimed the junta is brazenly continuing its war crimes and crimes against humanity by conducting assaults on non-combatant targets.
Incidents were reported in Rakhine and Chin states and Bago and Sagaing regions.
Below, The Irrawaddy highlights some significant attacks by the junta against civilians.
Some civilian casualties could not be independently verified.
Seven civilians killed in junta bombardments targeting villages in Rakhine
Though no ground clashes against ethnic armed group the Arakan Army (AA) were occurring at the time, the Myanmar junta used artillery and an Mi-35 helicopter gunship to bombard Link Sin Ywar Thit Village in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township on Wednesday afternoon, killing six civilians including two children and injuring many others, according to the AA and local media reports.
The aftermath of Wednesday’s junta helicopter and artillery attacks on Link Sin Ywar Thit Village in Rakhine State’s Kyauktaw Township. / Western News
Several civilian houses were also destroyed. On that morning, junta Light Infantry Battalion 376 based in Kyauktaw town shelled nearby villages with 120-mm mortar rounds, killing a 52-year-old man in Thayet Tapin Village.
Regime forces burn down village near Rakhine State capital Sittwe
A military unit of 50 troops burned down over 80 houses in Taw Kan Village near the Rakhine State capital Sittwe for the second time on Monday, according to local media reports and the ethnic Rakhine armed force the Arakan Army, which is fighting the regime.
During the raid on the village, the junta troops also shot dead a 70-year-old villager who was disabled due to a stroke, and another woman who lived in the village.
On Dec. 22 last year, regime forces also burned houses in the village, which has over 100 households.
Civilians killed in junta air strikes in Chin
Four internally displaced people including a 5-year-old child were killed and three others injured in Paletwa Township, southern Chin State as Myanmar junta aircraft bombed Kyi Lay Village on Monday, according to local media reports.
The air strikes came a day after the whole township of Paletwa—which is home to a total of 24 junta bases and military command headquarters—was seized by the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) based in neighboring Rakhine State.
On the same afternoon, a junta fighter jet bombed One Two Village in Chin State’s Mindat Township, killing a 73-year-old female villager and destroying seven houses, said the Chinland Defense Force (Mindat).
Junta continues to bombard civilian-controlled Kawlin town in Sagaing
The junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 120 based in Wuntho used howitzers to continue its bombardment of residential wards in Kawlin town on Monday night, burning civilian houses, said People To People (Kawlin), a local aid group.
There were no civilian casualties, however, as the house owners and their families were away.
The town has been under the control of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) since Nov. 6 last year, after its armed wing the People’s Defense Force (PDF) and allied ethnic armies attacked and seized the town from the military regime.
Since then, the junta’s Battalion 120 in Wuntho has frequently shelled Kawlin arbitrarily, killing at least 13 civilians and damaging many houses.
Junta continues arbitrary killings, shelling of civilian targets in Bago
Ethnic Karen revolutionary group the Karen National Union (KNU) said Myanmar junta troops shot dead four male civilians while raiding Anan Baw Village in Kyaukkyi Township, Bago Region on Tuesday afternoon.
During the raid, two other villagers, Daw Mar Mar Oo, 32, and U Soe Aung, 35, were killed when a junta battalion in the area shelled Anan Baw with heavy rounds.
On Sunday and Monday, military battalions in the area shelled at least three villages in Kyaukkyi Township with 120-mm artillery rounds, said the KNU.
