A Myanmar junta aircraft began raining down bombs on residential wards in Hsipaw town, northern Shan State, on Monday amid intense clashes with the ethnic Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
The ethnic army said a Harbin Y-12 plane dropped over 50 bombs on TNLA-controlled wards in Hsipaw on Tuesday morning alone, killing one resident and burning houses.
Local media outlet Shwe Phee Myay News reported that the airstrikes came after TNLA troops attacked the junta’s Infantry Battalion 23 base outside the town.
TNLA and allied resistance groups took effective control of Hsipaw town in August, but at least three regime battalion headquarters remain standing outside the town.
Fighting around the town restarted on September 14 as TNLA forces launched an offensive to take the remaining strongholds.
Junta aircraft also dropped supplies of ammunition to Infantry Battalion 23 after bombarding the surrounding area with around 80 bombs, the TNLA said.
On Sunday night, Battalion 23 launched an artillery strike on Hsipaw town that destroyed a house, the TNLA said.
On Monday, clashes also broke out at four locations around Taung Hkam village, south of Nawnghkio Township in northern Shan. TNLA troops targeted the village’s two remaining artillery bases along with junta reinforcements sent from southern Shan State.
The TNLA and resistance allies reportedly seized bases belonging to artillery battalions 354 and 902 in Taung Hkam last week. However, TNLA spokeswoman Lway Yay Oo told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the ethnic army was still engaging regime forces at the two bases.
The TNLA is a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, which launched the major anti-regime Operation 1027 in northern Shan State last October.
The ethnic alliance has since seized most of northern Shan, capturing some 25 towns and townships, including the capital Lashio, as well as vital trade routes with China.
The Arkan Army (AA), a fellow alliance member, has captured almost all of Rakhine State after expanding Operation 1027 to western Myanmar.
Earlier this month the junta designated all three members of the alliance, including the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, as terrorist groups, ending hopes for a negotiated truce.
Since then, the junta has intensified its bombardment of civilian targets such as towns, schools, hospitals and markets under alliance control in northern Shan and Rakhine, killing several dozen civilians and captive regime troops. The TNLA reported that junta air and artillery strikes on Hsipaw killed at least 29 civilians, including 10 children, in August alone.
