Junta Steps Up Atrocities Against Civilians While Losing Dozens of Personnel in Resistance Attacks
By The Irrawaddy 25 October 2022
The past three days saw the junta launch massive air raids and artillery attacks on People’s Defense Force groups (PDFs) and allied ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), but displaced persons camps and other civilian targets were not spared. Several resistance fighters and unarmed civilians were killed and injured in Kachin and Kayah states and Sagaing Region, but the deadliest attack occurred in Hpakant, Kachin State, killing more than 60 people.
Meanwhile, dozens of junta troops and junta-appointed administrators were also reportedly killed in Karen State and Magwe and Mandalay regions.
Deadly junta air strike on Kachin concert condemned as war crime
In an attack widely condemned as a war crime, more than 60 people celebrating the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)’s anniversary in Kachin State’s Hpakant on Sunday were killed in nighttime junta airstrikes. KIO and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) officials, prominent Kachin artists and civilians were among the victims. Local media reported the total casualties could top 100. The KIO is a powerful Kachin political organization whose armed wing, the KIA, has been fighting against the Myanmar central government and its military for greater autonomy. Since the coup last year, the KIA has been conducting military operations alongside anti-regime forces.
Junta air strikes in Kachin’s Moemauk force people to flee
The junta carried out massive air strikes on Moemauk Township, Kachin State day and night for three consecutive days after fighting was reported between junta forces and a combined force of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the People’s Defense Force, the latter reported on Saturday morning. Hundreds of locals have reportedly fled due to the junta’s indiscriminate aerial bombardment of the town and are in dire need of food.
Children orphaned as junta shells IDP camp in Kayah State
An artillery shell fired by junta forces at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Kone Thar Village in Kayah State’s Loikaw Township hit a displaced family on Sunday night, killing the 35-year-old father on the spot and causing a severe head wound to the mother, who died the next day. One of their children, an 8-year-old, was injured in the thigh. The two were also survived by a 6-month-old baby, according to local media and a refugee support network.
Regime offices attacked in Kawkareik
Myanmar military regime offices in Karen State’s Kawkareik Township were attacked by combined resistance troops fighting along with the Kaw Thoo Lei Army, an anti-regime Karen armed group, on Friday. During the eight-hour battle, the junta used artillery and launched airstrikes at least 54 times, causing civilian casualties. The resistance forces claimed that eight junta troops were killed during the fighting and a quantity of ammunition seized. During the fighting an outpost manned by the Border Guard Force (BGF), a splinter Karen armed group loyal to the regime, was captured by resistance troops.
Two junta–appointed administrators killed in Bago
Two junta-appointed local administrators in Yedashe and Paukkhaung townships of Bago Regon were shot dead on Sunday and Monday as part of the anti-regime resistance’s Operation Nan Htike Aung. Bago Region PDF said that as guerrilla fighters were carrying out the attack on U Nay Myo—who was also the head of a local Pyu Saw Htee pro-junta militia group—in Yedashe on Sunday afternoon, his wife attempted to attack the resistance fighters, who were thus forced to shoot and injure her, though she was not directly targeted in the operation.
Nine PDF members, civilian killed, burned in Sagaing
Nine members of a local resistance group, all in their 20s, and a civilian were killed in a pre-dawn raid in Shwe Hlan Village, Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region, last Friday, according to the resistance group Monywa District Battalion 13 (Aung San Generation). Around 100 junta forces, who were not wearing military uniforms, raided the village. The victims’ burned bodies were discovered the next day.
Seven regime troops killed in police station attack in Magwe
Linkataw Police Station in Magwe Region’s Myaing Township came under attack on Friday by four local resistance groups, who claimed to have killed seven junta troops. Myaing People’s Defense Force, one of the groups joining the attack, said the police station was raided twice on the day before the mission was aborted due to a lack of ammunition. The junta used an Mi-35 helicopter to counter the raids.
At least four junta soldiers killed in vehicle bombing in Mandalay
Urban guerrilla group Generation Z Power-Mandalay said it carried out two land mine attacks on a military vehicle carrying around 15 junta soldiers on Sunday afternoon in the region, killing at least four junta soldiers and injuring others.
