The Myanmar junta’s air force bombed a village in a strife-torn central region killing seven people as they slept, an insurgent group said on Thursday, the latest deaths in what opponents of the junta say is a deliberate campaign to target civilians in areas under rebel control.
Forces of the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup are increasingly relying on air power to strike back at insurgent forces who have made significant gains on the ground in several parts of the country since late last year.
In the central Mandalay region, pro-democracy fighters in the Mandalay People’s Defense Force and allied Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, ethnic minority insurgents have captured dozens of junta positions, including the gem-mining town of Mogoke, over recent months.
But the junta has responded with deadly retaliation from the air, in a campaign the junta's enemies say is aimed at killing civilians in a bid to warn the population off support for the rebels.
In the dead of night on Tuesday, the junta’s air force launched an attack on Mandalay region’s Payaung Taung village in a strike that appeared to be timed to catch villagers asleep in their beds to maximize casualties, the Mandalay force said in a statement.
"Seven people were killed when a bomb was dropped at night, four women and three men,” said a resident of the area who declined to be identified for safety reasons.
“There were also many injured people but we don't know the details yet.”
Radio Free Asia could not reach the junta main spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, by telephone to ask about the incident.
The Mandalay People’s Defense Force released photographs of the victims but it said it could not identify them.
The junta's air force launched strikes on two villages in the Mandalay region's Singu township on Aug. 4, killing 13 people and wounding 19, the group said.
Junta spokesmen have denied targeting civilians.
A three-party alliance of insurgent forces, including the TNLA, this week called on neighboring China to intervene with the junta to press it to stop attacking civilians.
The insurgents have little in the way of anti-aircraft weapons to defend against junta jets.
According to data compiled by the RFA, airstrikes and heavy weapon attacks by junta troops have killed about 2,000 civilians and wounded nearly 4,000 since the 2021 coup, up to May.
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Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan.