The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) claimed that at least 11 civilians, including two children and a pregnant woman, were killed by airstrikes carried out by the Myanmar Air Force in Namkham Township, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of the Myanmar-China border town of Muse in northern Shan State on Friday. Eleven other civilians were injured during the airstrikes, the Brotherhood Alliance member added.
“We don’t know the exact [number of people killed] yet because the injured are [receiving treatment] at the hospital,” a member of a local rescue team in Namkham told DVB. “What we can confirm is that a family of three has been killed,” said a Namkham resident.
Three different areas of the town were struck by the military’s aerial bombardments. Namkham has been under TNLA control since December. There has been no fighting between the TNLA and military in Namkham since then. But an airstrike was carried out Wednesday on Namkham, residents reported. They added that there were no casualties.
“The Burma military’s daily bombardment using 500-pound bombs on civilian targets is a blatant war crime,” the TNLA stated on Friday.
The military has stepped up its use of airstrikes on towns and territory under the control of resistance groups over the last week. The TNLA reported that the military attacked Mantong on Sept. 3 and Hsipaw on Sept. 4, killing one civilian and injuring three others. Both towns are also under TNLA control.
Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing said that the military would retake towns and villages in northern Shan State seized by the TNLA and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), during a speech on Tuesday in the Shan State capital of Taunggyi. The regime declared Brotherhood Alliance members the TNLA, the MNDAA, and the Arakan Army (AA) terrorist groups on Monday.
The TNLA has seized control of at least 10 towns since the Brotherhood Alliance launched Operation 1027 in northern Shan State on Oct. 27. A ceasefire brokered by China on Jan. 11 brought a temporary halt to the military’s battlefield losses to the Brotherhood Alliance. But fighting resumed on June 25, which has come to be known as Operation 1027 Second Wave by groups resisting the 2021 military coup.
