Four civilians, including a child and pregnant woman, were killed in Myanmar junta airstrikes in Kawlin Township, Sagaing Region, on Tuesday night.
The regime has continued to conduct aerial bombardments and arson attacks on civilian targets despite recent United Nations calls to end the attacks.
The airstrikes came after the regime reportedly suffered heavy losses in a resistance ambush in neighboring Kantbalu Township on Tuesday morning, according to resistance forces.
Three regime fighters reportedly bombed Thit Saint Kone village in the west of Kawlin Township near the ambush site.
Kawlin Revolution, a media partner of the resistance forces, reported on Wednesday that six-year-old boy Mg Pyae Sone and nine-month-pregnant Ma Phyu Zar Win were killed along with two male villagers in the airstrike.
Another villager was injured.
On Tuesday morning Kantbalu District Battalion (KDB) ambushed around 67 troops between Letkokpin village in Kantbalu and Aung Chanthar village in Kawlin using explosives and automatic rifles.
The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the reports and the area’s mobile internet has been blocked, preventing resistance groups from providing photos to substantiate their claims.
The attack appears to have been well-planned, including the evacuation of villagers. The troops had been burning houses at a nearby village before the ambush, according to the KDB.
In the two-hour ambush, around 40 regime troops were killed and three captains were seized along with more than 20 firearms and ammunition, Bo Yaung Ni of the KDB told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
Resistance fighters escaped the areas when an MI-35 helicopter and jet fighter were deployed to help the troops.
Bo Yaung Ni said they were unable to count the number of dead bodies because of the airstrike.
He said: “We are very upset about the deaths of civilians. We can protect civilians from infantry soldiers but not airstrikes.”
Amid near-daily attacks from PDFs and ethnic armed organizations, the regime has committed atrocities, including massacres, arbitrary torturing and the killing of civilians, extrajudicial executions of resistance detainees, using civilian detainees as human shields, artillery and airstrikes on residential areas, looting and burning houses and the acts of sexual violence across the country.
