A joint bombardment operation by the Myanmar junta’s navy, army and air force has killed around 10 people and destroyed over 200 homes in a village in Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township near the tourist destination of Ngapali Beach since Tuesday, according to residents.
Units from the three military branches launched a joint attack on Singaung Village, which sits at the spot where the Thandwe River reaches the Bay of Bengal, over its alleged links to the Arakan Army (AA), whose troops have reportedly entered the village.
Throughout Tuesday, regime forces fired around 100 shells from two military bases in Thandwe—one at Bar Taung (Bar Hill) near Thandwe Airport, and another at God Taung (God Hill), 3.2 km from Singaung, sources on the ground told The Irrawaddy.
While the junta forces at the bases in Thandwe shelled Singaung, regime aircraft made several bombing runs over the village, dropping an estimated four 500-pound bombs on each run, lasting until the afternoon, the sources said.
Meanwhile, navy ships patrolling in the Bay of Bengal near Singaung also fired shells at the village.
“The military used a large number of shells and bombs to destroy just one village,” a Thandwe resident said.
A harbor village with around 1,000 households, Singaung is situated 41 km northwest of Thandwe town.
The military’s sudden attack on the village caused panic among residents—all of whom fled, mostly to Taungup town and nearby villages. They did not have time to take any belongings with them, Thandwe residents said.
In addition to the approximately 10 civilians killed in the junta attacks since Tuesday, nearly 30 people have been injured, a Thandwe source said. Some reports put the death toll as high as 30, but The Irrawaddy was unable to verify those claims. All of the village’s residents have fled and are unable to return to retrieve the bodies of the dead, as the attacks are ongoing.
“Currently, it is impossible to verify all details about the village due to the non-stop attacks by the regime forces,” said Thandwe resident Ko Soe Kyaw.
Thandwe residents said they continued to hear explosions from Singaung on Thursday morning.
In Rakhine State, the military junta has suffered a series of humiliating battlefield defeats and has lost a large amount of territory since the AA launched a large-scale offensive in November last year.
The ethnic armed group has seized 10 of the state’s 17 townships and is in control of much of northern Rakhine.
Recently, the fighting has shifted southward to Thandwe Township, with clashes between AA and regime troops escalating in villages around Thandwe town since the third week of April.
As the AA has made gains on the battlefield and moved closer to Thandwe, the military regime has begun targeting civilians in the area more intensely.
On May 18, nine civilians from Nut Taung Maw Village in Thandwe Township were killed when regime forces bombarded it.
Currently, AA troops are just 1.6 km from Thandwe Airport, close to Ngapali Beach. Clashes erupted at that location near the airport on Sunday.
As a consequence, the regime has shut down Thandwe Airport temporarily, effective June 4-9, according to local media.
