China on Sunday morning fired warning shots at a junta jet fighter that flew too close to the border while it was bombing the rebel-held town of Namkham in northern Shan State.
The bomber reached Namkham, which is controlled by the ethnic Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), around 7.30 am on Sunday, but it took around 30 minutes before it launched the attack while China fired warning shots, a resident told The Irrawaddy.
“When the fighter headed to China to make a U-turn back to Namkham, China fired shots to prevent it from entering its airspace,” he said. “But the aircraft came back again some five minutes later [to search for targets], so China fired shots again. It happened again and again.”
The warning shots were fired by Chinese troops deployed in Nongdao, across the border from Namkham on the other side of the Shweli River, he added.
Eventually the fighter jet dropped three bombs on a TNLA base and a village some 1.6 km east of Namkham around 8 a.m. and another four on neighboring Man Wei Gyi neighborhood in Kachin State, according to residents. No casualties were reported.
TNLA spokeswoman Lwei Yay Oo said: “I heard that junta aircraft were patrolling around the [nearby] Muse border trade zone, and China fired warning shots as part of air defense measures.”
Earlier this month, reports and a video circulating on social media allegedly showed Chinese forces firing shots at a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet of the regime.
The junta also targeted downtown Namkham on the morning of Sept. 6, killing 11 civilians including children and a pregnant woman.
China carried out a three-day live-fire military exercise near Nongdao in August amid heavy fighting between the regime and ethnic armed groups.
It also allegedly fired warning shots at junta aircraft that came to provide air support for ground troops defending themselves against the TNLA attack.
Sunday marked the first anniversary of Operation 1027, a large-scale offensive launched in the region by the Brotherhood Alliance, which consists of the TNLA plus the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Arakan Army (AA). The alliance has seized more than 20 towns in northern Shan State including the state capital Lashio over the past year.
The same day, the regime bombed Laukkai, the headquarters of the MNDAA, reportedly wounding four civilians and damaging many buildings.
