Junta jet attack kills man in Myanmar’s Kayah state

A junta plane attacked two villages in Myanmar’s eastern Kayah state on Friday morning, killing a man and wounding two children, locals told RFA.

The plane first strafed the village of Li Khu Pa Yar in Hpruso township around midnight on Thursday before returning to drop bombs on the villages of Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw before dawn on Friday.

“Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw village are not close, so when Li Khu Pa Yar was shot from the air at midnight, the people of Do Yaw village did not run away because they thought the shots would not reach to his village,” said a local who did not want to be named for security reasons.

“But both Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw villages were bombarded from the air at 4pm. Some people were sleeping so as not to run away.”

The local said the man who died was in his 40s, but did not give the ages of the children. He said that five houses in Do Yaw were destroyed by shelling.

The executive director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, Banyar, who uses only one name, confirmed the death and injuries and said details are still being investigated.

Li Khu Pa Yar and Do Yaw are small towns with fewer than 50 houses in a state that is sparsely populated compared to the rest of Myanmar.

Locals said the junta attacked by air because road transport is difficult in the Hpruso municipality.

Although the Karenni Defense Forces are active in Kayah state, residents told RFA they had no idea why the junta attacked their villages. Many have now taken refuge in the nearby jungle.

RFA called Kaya state board spokesman Aung Win Oo on Friday, but no one answered.

According to a June 1 statement by the Karenni Popular Progressive Force, there have been 699 battles in three townships in Kayah and neighboring Shan states since the February 1, 2021 coup and the junta has carried out 463 airstrikes.

The armed ethnic group said 462 people were killed in Kayah state due to fighting during that period and 15 were killed in airstrikes.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.