Myanmar junta jets bombed a northeastern town under rebel control, killing six people and severely damaging a market, residents told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday, the latest civilian casualties inflicted by the army as it loses territory to insurgents battling to end military rule.
The Three Brotherhood Alliance of insurgent forces opposing the junta has seized significant parts of Shan state and the neighboring Mandalay region since late last year, despite efforts by neighboring China to broker ceasefires.
On Monday, a junta jet dropped seven bombs on Kutkai, a northern Shan town that a member of the rebel alliance, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, seized in January.
Residents had noticed a junta spotter plane over Kutkai in the morning and suspected an airstrike was imminent, said one resident of the town, about 270 kilometers (165 miles) northeast of the city of Mandalay, adding that soon enough, jets roared in on a bombing run.
“One jet dropped seven bombs at the same time,” said the resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons.
Two blasts destroyed about 400 stalls in the town's market, said the resident, who declined to be identified for safety reasons, adding that bombs damaged more than a dozen other buildings including lodgings for construction department staff and a temple.
“The market was closed and everyone was warned to be careful, otherwise there might have been a lot more casualties.”
Five of the six people killed were men between the ages of 20 and 30 and the sixth was a young girl, he said, adding that 13 people were wounded.
Bombing continued until Wednesday afternoon but no more people were killed, he said.
RFA tried to telephone Shan state’s junta spokesperson, Khun Thein Maung, for comment on the attack but he did not respond.
Myanmar has been embroiled in conflict since the junta ousted an elected government in early 2021.
While autonomy-seeking ethnic minority insurgents have battled the army in remote border regions for decades, pro-democracy activists from towns and cities across the country have taken up arms since the coup, and the military is struggling to hold territory in several areas, including northern Shan state.
Human rights investigators have said indiscriminate air attacks by junta forces are taking a heavy toll on civilians.
The Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar think tank said in a report on Monday that the number of junta airstrikes had nearly doubled since insurgents launched an offensive last October and now totalled at least 3,800 air attacks throughout the country.
Rebels look to China
The Three Brotherhood Alliance called on China to intervene with the junta to press it to stop attacking civilians, the insurgent groups said in a statement on Tuesday.
As the junta forces face defeat, they are targeting markets, schools, hospitals, religious buildings, bridges, towns and villages in rebel-controlled territory, that now includes northern Shan state’s Laukkaing, Hsenwi, Kutkai and Namhsan townships and eight townships of Rakhine state in the west, the alliance said.
Junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun did not respond to requests for comment from RFA on the accusations junta forces were attacking civilians. China’s embassy in Myanmar also did not respond to requests for comment on the alliance’s request for intervention.
The Chinese embassy issued a warning this week on its Wechat social media page to its citizens to leave Lashio, the main city in northern Shan state. Another insurgent force in the alliance, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, has been battling junta forces in Lashio for weeks and recently captured the main military headquarters for northeastern Myanmar there.
China, which has extensive investments in natural resources and energy pipelines in Myanmar, has declined to take sides in the fighting and called on the warring rivals to negotiate peace.
But China’s good relations with the junta appear to be coming under strain because of junta suspicions of Chinese links with insurgent groups operating out of Shan state regions along the border.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, in speech on Monday, warned that “some foreign nations” were prolonging the conflict “in their own interests”. He did not identify China but spoke of insurgent groups “along the China-Myanmar border” acquiring the means to make their own weapons and other military equipment, adding that the source of such material should be investigated.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan