Junta air and artillery strikes killed at least 17 civilians including children and internally displaced people (IDPs) in Monywa, Chaung-U and Salingyi townships in Sagaing Region on Wednesday and Thursday, according to anti-regime groups and locals. More than 30 others were wounded.
A representative from the People’s Defense Force (PDF) in Monywa said the junta used two paragliders to drop bombs on villages along the Chindwin River near the Monywa-Chaung-U border on Thursday afternoon, killing a child and some women.
According to the latest information, the death toll from the junta’s airstrikes and artillery strikes over the two days has risen to 17, the representative said.
No. 2 Police Station in Monywa and checkpoints at the entrances of the town fired artillery shells on Wednesday evening, followed by bombing raids with Y-12 aircraft. A displacement camp in Chaung-U was hit, killing three civilians, a member of Monywa District PDF Battalion 4 told The Irrawaddy.
“Residents from at least six villages in Monywa Township and three villages in Chaung-U Township were forced to flee overnight due to the bombing raid. We have retrieved the victims’ bodies. But we could not hold a funeral for them as villagers have fled. Junta troops are also raiding villages,” he told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
Junta bases fired at least 50 artillery shells, and the warplanes dropped more than 100 bombs, killing civilians as well as dozens of cattle and destroying or damaging houses.
Monywa, the capital of Sagaing Region, houses the Northwestern Command of the Myanmar military. Chaung-U and Salingyi border Monywa.
The Northwestern Command has continuously carried out raids on villages in Monywa and adjacent townships since Brigadier General Myo Min Htwe became the chief of the command in December. More than 200 people including women have been arbitrarily detained in Monywa since January, according to sources.
One resident of Chaung-U Township said: “The villages targeted by the airstrikes are at least four kilometers apart. They are deliberately targeting civilians. The worst part of the attack was they targeted a displacement camp. It was an intentional war crime.”
Around 100 junta troops raided villages as the regime carried out airstrikes, forcing more than 10,000 people from at least 10 villages in Monywa, Chaung-U and Salingyi townships to flee their homes.
“Aircraft were flying over villages this morning. We fled overnight without sleeping. We have left behind our cattle, and many cattle were killed. Nyaungphyubin and Thitseint were hit hardest,” one Monywa resident told The Irrawaddy on Thursday morning.
Monywa residents said they heard artillery shelling and airstrikes the whole night.
The Irrawaddy’s calls to Nyunt Win Aung, the junta’s spokesman for its Sagaing regional government, went unanswered.
