Myanmar’s junta has stepped up deadly airstrikes on civilian targets including a school, a bazaar, towns, and an IDP camp, killing at least 40 people including a dozen children in the past six days.
The aerial massacres came after junta boss Min Aung Hlaing’s recent vow to launch counterattacks to retake territory seized by resistance forces.
Resistance groups and rights bodies said the junta was brazenly escalating its campaign of war crimes by targeting civilian populations in retaliation for battlefield and territory losses.
Revolutionary groups also reiterated their demand for the United Nations, European Union (EU) and ASEAN to ban exports of aviation fuel and ammunition to the Myanmar military and take effective action that prevents junta war crimes against civilians.
A series of junta airstrikes on civilian targets in Chin, Shan and Karenni States and Magwe, Sagaing and Mandalay Regions have killed dozens of civilians including women and children since Sunday.
On Friday afternoon, a junta fighter jet used 300-lb bombs and machine guns to attack a school at Lat Yat Ma Village in Myaing Township, Magwe Region despite the absence of clashes in the area. The attack killed six villagers, including a child, and wounded more than 10 others, according to anti-regime group We Love Myaing. A dozen cows belonging to residents were also killed in the strike, which destroyed school buildings and nearby houses. The same day saw junta airstrikes damage houses in villages in Mandalay Region’s Natogyi Township and Mindat Township, Chin State.
At 1.35 am on Friday, junta fighter jets dropped two 500-lb bombs on residential wards of Namkham town near the Chinese border in northern Shan State, killing at least 13 civilians including a child and a pregnant woman. The attack also wounded 11 others and destroyed at least six houses.
Just hours earlier, a regime fighter jet bombed a camp for internally displaced persons in Pekon Township, southern Shan State, killing 10 civilians including eight children, and wounding 14 others.
Junta warplanes also bombed Nanmekon town and nearby villages in Loikaw Township in neighboring Karenni (Kayah) State on Wednesday and Thursday, killing a resident and destroying civilian infrastructure.
The Interim Executive Committee of Karenni State on Friday urged the international community to bring a war crimes case against the junta at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Junta fighter jets also bombed Mantong town and a village in Nawnghkio township under the control of ethnic Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in northern Shan State in recently days, killing at least one civilian and damaging numerous houses.
On Sunday afternoon, junta aircraft also bombed a bazaar in Maung Kone village, which is under the control of People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) in Tigyaing Township, Sagaing Region, killing nine civilians including a child, according to Tigyaing Township’s People Administration Group.
