Multiple junta attacks killed six civilians and injured 16 others over a two-day period, residents who experienced the ambush told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
Junta troops conducted aerial assaults and shelled villages across three townships in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine. The area has experienced several months of indiscriminate violence toward civilians following the end of a year-long ceasefire between the anti-junta Arakan Army and the military in November 2023.
Since then, the Arakan Army has seized eight townships across Rakhine state and recently set eyes on a ninth. In Minbya township, under Arakan Army control since Feb. 6, airstrikes by the junta’s air force killed three women and injured seven more people on Wednesday, said a resident from Myit Nar village who declined to be named for security reasons.
"Two bombs were dropped into the village around 4:00 a.m.,” they said. “One of the injured is a healthcare worker. [The junta] dropped bombs when we were all sleeping.”
In Myebon township, which is not under Arakan Army control, airstrikes in Kan Htaunt Gyi village killed three residents and injured three more on Tuesday. Later that day, junta forces also shelled Pauktaw township's Maw Htoke Gyi village, injuring six. The Arakan Army seized Pauktaw township on Jan. 24.
RFA attempted to contact Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein for a response to allegations that junta air strikes have targeted civilians, but he did not respond by the time of publication.
According to data compiled by RFA, fighting between the Arakan Army and junta forces has killed nearly 200 civilians and injured more than 500 since fighting began again on Nov. 13.
50 homes in Myawaddy Township village destroyed by junta artillery
Besides, junta artillery fire from the Infantry Battalion 275 camp burned down about 50 houses in Thingannyinaung Village in Karen State’s Myawaddy Township on 31 March.
At about 2:00 pm on 31 March, fighting broke out between junta troops and fighters from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) near Thingannyinaung football stadium.
Following the fighting the Myawaddy-based Infantry Battalion 275 fired artillery into the area from about 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm.
The artillery fire destroyed shops in the market, the football stadium and many houses.
A villager from Thingannyinaung said: “We heard intense artillery fire near the football stadium, followed by plumes of smoke rising from the east side of the village. It’s likely that around 50 houses were destroyed in the blaze.”
A woman said: “My home is gone. I had no time to salvage anything. There’s nothing left. A shell from Infantry Battalion 275 struck my house. The junta’s shelling caused the devastation. With the village being small, only a handful of houses remain standing.”
Fire trucks rushed from Myawaddy town to try to extinguish the fires, according to a source in Myawaddy.
Since 7 March there has been an escalation of fighting in Thingannyinaung Village.
