Myanmar’s junta on Thursday again shelled a village in the northern Sagaing region where warplanes had struck just a week earlier, killing around 200 residents, according to the sources.
Sagaing has been a focus of resistance to junta rule. The April 11 airstrike on the opening ceremony of a public administration building in Pa Zi Gyi village in Kanbalu Township was one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup. of state in February 2021 and drew condemnation from around the world.
On Thursday, despite pushback from the international community, the junta carried out another air strike against Pa Zi Gyi.
Initial reports said that no one was injured in the latest shelling, as most of the village’s residents were either killed or still hiding from last week’s attack. But sources told RFA Burmese that many of the remaining buildings were damaged.
The aircraft made three passes over Pa Zi Gyi, starting around 2:30 p.m., said a Pa Zi Gyi resident, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns.
“They dropped bombs and also shot at the village, but no villager was hurt,” he said. “We had evacuated all of them by then. They just shot at an empty town.”
Some 5,000 people from Pa Zi Gyi and seven nearby villages were forced to flee their homes amid the latest attack, the sources said.
six bombs
Ko Myo, a resident of Kanbalu township, said the warplane “dropped six bombs” on the village on Thursday.
“The explosion was quite strong,” he said. “Smoke rises into the sky from the town. I think the houses are burning now.”
Ko Myo confirmed that no one was injured in the attack as the villagers had already fled to safety.
“This attack looks like one of the operations to clean up the junta area,” he said, adding that the troops arrived in the town around midday on Wednesday, but only entered it on Thursday afternoon.
“Their fighter jet flew twice and an Mi-35 helicopter flew once to scout as they entered the village. I think it was to see if there was any resistance in the town to protect their soldiers.”
Kyo Myo said the military column that entered the village was the Shwebo-13 Training Unit, which had arrived from the city of Mandalay, some 195 kilometers (120 miles) to the south. RFA has not been able to independently verify the claim.
‘precision’ attack
RFA’s attempts to contact Aye Hlaing, the junta’s spokesperson for the Sagaing region, regarding the situation in Pa Zi Gyi village went unanswered on Thursday.
However, the army confirmed in a statement last week that it had carried out a “precision” attack on Pa Zi Gyi on April 11 because PDF members had gathered there and “committed terrorist acts.” He vowed to continue to eliminate resistance forces from the area.
The junta’s Deputy Information Minister, Major General Zaw Min Tun, told the military-controlled broadcast channel MRTV that those killed in the April 11 attack were PDF members, not civilians, and that the large number of casualties was It was due to a cache of weapons from the rebels. explode during operation.
But rescuers have questioned that version. They say the attack on the site was deliberate and extensive, beginning with a bombing raid by fighter jets and followed by an Mi-35 helicopter strafing the area, much like the attack on Thursday.
Desperate for water, food
Since last week’s attack, more than 600 Pa Zi Gyi residents who have taken shelter under tarpaulins in the nearby jungle are in desperate need of food and clean water, said a villager who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.
“It is difficult for them to even cook rice (when they have it) as they have to fetch water from streams some distance away,” the villager said. “If they are sick, there is nothing to help them… They cannot sleep well, they have to be vigilant. They have to be ready to run, since they don’t know when the junta will attack them.”
Among the displaced are the elderly, the sick, children and pregnant women, he said.
Nay Zin Latt, a Kanbalu township representative from the ousted National League for Democracy, told RFA that the refugees are “constantly anxious and scared”.
“Since they were attacked by planes, they tremble and hide whenever they hear the sound of the planes,” he said. “It is a very terrible situation that they find themselves in. But it is worse for children, the elderly and people with health problems, as the current climate is very harsh, even for a healthy person.”
Members of the anti-Kanbalu junta People’s Defense Forces paramilitaries said the situation in and around Pa Zi Gyi is “very tense.” They said the army is focusing on taking over the area by land and air.
“That is why they are carrying out area cleanup operations here; I think they came to scare our people,” said a Kanbalu PDF official. “Forts arrived with two columns (of troops).”
The official noted that the junta has increasingly relied on airstrikes as the conflict in Sagaing continues.
“But you can’t win the whole war just by controlling the air,” he added.
Thursday’s attack came as more than 1,000 villagers in Nawnghkio township in northern Shan state were forced to flee fighting between the army and Mandalay PDF.
The two sides have been locked in fighting for much of the past two weeks and those who fled Thursday brought to 4,000 the number of people displaced from the township since the latest fighting began.
According to a statement issued Wednesday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 1.8 million people have fled their homes due to the armed conflict in Myanmar. In October, the United Nations announced that at least 500,000 people had fled fighting in Sagaing since the coup.
Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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