As Myanmar reels from deadly landslides and floods, the military junta has launched airstrikes on civilian areas in northern Shan State where an anti-junta ethnic armed group is active.
On Thursday alone, the regime’s air force attacked Nawnghkio and Hsipaw towns with over 70 bombs, according to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and local residents.
Military regime Y12 aircraft attacked Nawnghkio’s railway station and market, dropping over 60 bombs at around 3 a.m. on Thursday. Several civilian houses were destroyed and Nawnghkio railway station and some stalls at Myoma market were damaged, although no casualties were reported.
Nawnghkio has been under the TNLA’s full control since June. Most of the town’s residents have fled since then, fearing aerial attacks.
The junta’s fighter jets also launched an aerial attack on northern Shan State’s Hsipaw town on the same day. The jets flew over the town three times and dropped over 10 bombs, including 500 pound bombs, between 12:30 and 1:50 p.m. on Thursday, while military bases around the town shelled it, the TNLA said in a statement released on Thursday night.
“Most residents of Nawnghkio and Hsipaw fled when the clashes started. Mobile phone connections are also [limited]. We cannot make a call and if we want to know the ground situation we have to wait until they call us,” said a resident of Nawnghkio currently living in Taunggyi.
The TNLA seized most of Hsipaw in August.
The military regime has been bombing and shelling civilians and non-military targets since losing most of northern Shan State—including Lashio, Hsipaw, Kyaukme, Namkham, Laukkai, and Hseni—to ethnic armed groups following the resumption of the anti-regime Operation 1027 in June.
Clashes between the military regime and joint resistance forces led by ethnic armed groups are escalating in the Nawnghkio and Hsipaw areas as the revolutionary forces try to seize the regime’s Artillery Command Headquarters 902 and 345 in Taungkham near Nawnghkio town, as well as Light Infantry Battalion 23 headquarters and Infantry Battalions 503 and 504 headquarters in Hsipaw town.
The military regime has intensified its bombardment of civilian targets in northern Shan under the control of the Brotherhood Alliance—such as towns, schools, hospitals and markets—since it designated all three members of the alliance as terrorist groups earlier this month. The alliance comprises the TNLA, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Arakan Army (AA).
Also on Sept. 18, regime forces launched aerial attacks on Nawnghkio town at around 3 p.m. but there were no casualties, Shan-based local media outlets Shwe Phee Myay news reported.
The military regime’s indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets were conducted in the form of both aerial bombardments and shelling from bases stationed around the towns.
On Sept. 17, regime aircraft rained down bombs on residential wards of Hsipaw town, killing one resident and burning houses. Following this, the Light Infantry Battalion 23 headquarters fired artillery shells at the town at around 5 p.m., injuring a woman and destroying a light truck and the goods loaded in it.
On the same day, junta aircraft dropped supplies of ammunition to Infantry Battalion 23’s headquarters, the TNLA said.
The junta’s attacks on civilians came as the remnants of Typhoon Yagi caused deadly flooding and landslides in nine of the country’s states and regions, killing 293 people and affecting more than 600,000 so far, according to official counts.
“The military regime has never spared a thought for civilians, as [militaries do] in other countries. They are only concerned with strengthening and building their power,” a military analyst remarked, comparing the junta’s armed forces unfavorably to the military in neighboring Thailand.
Thailand has also been affected by the typhoon but the government there took immediate action, using its military planes to respond to the natural disaster and help affected people.
