Residents of Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township are being urged to flee the area as fierce fighting continues to rage in the east of the township in a joint attack on regime forces that echoes Operation 1027 in northern Shan State.
The regime has responded to the joint attacks by bombing and killing civilians.
“We advise civilians to flee the conflict zone and avoid junta convoys,” said Ko Daung Lan, a member of Madaya Myo Hman resistance group. “The fighting is fierce. If local residents are short of food and they don’t feel safe, they can … seek our help. We will help them as much as we can,” he added.
Another resistance force, the Madaya People’s Defense Team, last week urged residents of the township to evacuate battle areas and avoid junta convoys as well as road travel between 4 am and 6 pm. It also urged civilians not to touch any unfamiliar objects to avoid unexploded ordnance.
Residents who could not flee were urged to dig bomb shelters to protect themselves from junta air raids and shelling, reports said.
On October 27, the three ethnic armies that comprise the Brotherhood Alliance launched Operation 1027, a joint attack on junta troops and bases in northern Shan State. They called for other resistance forces to follow their lead.
Resistance forces in eastern Madaya Township did so on November 13 when they launched Operation Taungthaman. Troops from the Ta’ang Naational Liberation Army, a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, have joined the operation, including the attack on a junta checkpoint on the border of Madaya and Singu townships on November 16.
During their attempt to rescue soldiers from the checkpoint, junta reinforcements from an air defense unit killed 11 civilians at a tea shop, including its owner and his family. The teashop in Aung Kanthar Village was near Mandalay-Mogoke Road.
The victims, aged 18 to 50, were from Aung Kanthar, Pat-lel-inn and other villages nearby.
That evening, junta troops checked vehicles on the Mandalay-Mogoke Road and examined the mobile phones of drivers and passengers.
They also raided Pat-lel-inn Village and torched homes, residents said.
On November 13, a clash broke out near Kinn Village in eastern Madaya. A 78-year-old woman was injured as the regime carried out air and artillery strikes. She died two days later.
Kinn had more than 1,000 homes, but 200 of them were incinerated in an attack by junta forces in April. Regime troops torched the village again on November 1 6 and 17, incinerating another 700 homes.
During three days of fighting in eastern Madaya (from November 13-15), the regime conducted at least seven air raids, the Mandalay People’s Defense Force Command said, adding that civilians were hit.
More than 8,000 people in eastern Madaya have been forced to flee their homes. They need food, tarpaulins and medicine, residents say.
