Junta bombs injured 14 villagers in the country’s west on Tuesday, residents told Radio Free Asia.
The attack occurred when a jet attacked Rakhine state’s Minbya township in the middle of the night, they said. The bombs destroyed houses and critically injured several civilians in Thay Kan village.
Minbya township is part of Mrauk-U district, the sprawling ancient capital of Rakhine state.
The Arakan Army has won control of Rakhine state's Pauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw, Myay Pon and Taung Pyo townships in the last four months, as well as neighboring Paletwa township in Chin state to the northeast.
Following the ethnic army’s capture of Minbya city on Feb. 6, there has been no fighting in the township for several weeks, one resident said.
“At around 1 a.m., a jet came and dropped two bombs, injuring 14 people. Four among the injured were in critical condition,” he said, declining to be named for security reasons. “A house was destroyed by fire. Some other houses were also destroyed.”
Thay Kan village has a population of only 400 people, and no military junta troops were stationed nearby, he added.
The injured are currently being treated at nearby clinics, residents told RFA.
Calls to Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein by RFA seeking comment on the incident went unanswered.
On Feb. 20, junta troops arrested over 100 young ethnic Rakhine men on a bus leaving the country's commercial capital of Yangon. Many were traveling to their homes in Minbya, among other nearby townships.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.