Five civilians were killed and 12 were injured in a week due to junta airstrikes and heavy artillery shelling in Bago region's Nyaunglebin district, according to the Karen National Union.
The area is controlled by the ethnic army’s Brigade 5 which has been fighting junta troops who are trying to take control of the area.
The union said Saturday that fighting broke out on Aug. 13 in Shwegyin, Kyaukkyi and Mone townships and continued until last Friday, bringing civilian casualties.
It added the junta had launched four airstrikes and fired 36 heavy artillery shells in the district that contains the two townships.
Airstrikes on Friday killed a 75-year-old woman and injured two teenagers and a three-year-old girl in Mone township, locals said.
On the same day, Infantry Battalion 439, based in Mone township, fired heavy artillery on another village, injuring four people aged between 17 and 75, according to locals.
A resident of Nga Toe Khin village, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA this is the first time the village has been shelled.
“We are still living in the village,” he said.
“There are no plans to move at the moment. If the situation gets worse, the village leaders have told us to move.”
On the morning of Aug. 16, artillery shells killed two people in Mone township’s Za Lote Gyi village.
Three days earlier, two teenagers were killed and two other youngsters injured by a heavy artillery bombardment of Pe Thauk village, residents said.
Shwegyin township was also targeted by junta heavy artillery.
On Aug. 14, a school was hit, injuring two students and a female teacher according to locals.
RFA called the Bago region’s junta spokesperson but nobody answered.
The military council is attacking seven Karen National Union-controlled areas in Kayin and Mon states, Bago and Tanintharyi regions – using more than 10,000 junta troops in a combination of ground and air attacks – according to the ethnic army’s officials.
The union is Myanmar’s oldest armed ethnic group, and the strongest since the Feb. 2021 coup.
According to figures by the union, more than 10,000 battles have broken out between the military council army and the group’s joint forces since the coup.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.