UPDATED at 3:41 P.M. ET on 09-26-2024
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Myanmar junta jets bombed a shelter for displaced people in a rebel-held town in Rakhine state on Thursday killing 14 civilians and wounding 25, an insurgent force official told Radio Free Asia.
The Arakan Army, or AA, has made significant gains in its battle for self-determination over the past year, capturing 10 of the 17 townships and major military bases in Myanmar's westernmost state but the junta has been hitting back, in particular with its air power.
Air force jets bombed the coastal town of Thandwe early on Thursday, hitting public administration offices where people displaced by the fighting have been staying, said AA spokesman Khaing Thu Kha.
“Two jets came in and dropped two bombs each on the city hall and the environmental preservation office. More than 200 displaced people were sheltering in the office,” he said.
“The injured were sent to hospital. Most were elderly people and children.”
The death toll would likely be higher because many displaced people who were seriously injured have not yet counted, said Khaing Thu Kha.
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RFA tried to contact Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson Hla Thein for information on the airstrikes but he did not answer telephone calls.
A Thandwe resident said he believed the jets had deliberately targeted civilians, though there was no particular evidence for that.
“The people sheltering there are mainly from Thandwe township and Gyeik Taw village,” said the resident who declined to be identified for safety reasons.
Residents and members of the AA say junta attacks in Rakhine state have increasingly targeted schools, monasteries, residential areas and government buildings that the AA has captured.
The junta has denied targeting civilians though human rights investigators also say civilians in rebel-held areas are increasingly being killed in airstrikes.
On Wednesday, junta attacks on nearby Myebon township’s Kan Htaunt Gyi village killed two women villagers and wounded seven people, residents said.
The military has launched an offensive in Shan state, on northeastern Myanmar's border with China, aiming to recapture lost territory there from two main insurgent forces allied with the AA.
On Sept. 2, the junta designated all three members of the alliance “terrorist groups.”
According to RFA data, junta airstrikes and heavy weapons attacks killed nearly 2,000 civilians and injured nearly 4,000 between the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat and May 2024.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
The story was updated to add a comment from the AA spokesman saying that the death toll would likely be higher.