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Junta shelling kills two children, injures several in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

September 26, 2022/in News

Fighting between the military and the ethnic Arakan Army is intensifying in the region. Military shelling in Myanmar’s Rakhine state over the past four days has claimed the lives of at least two children and injured several others, residents said Monday, as clashes ramp up between junta troops and ethnic insurgents following a two-year lull. […]

Child killed as military shells village during Ayeyarwady River crossing in Kachin State

September 26, 2022/in News

A junta column fires artillery into a village in the attempted advance, but loses more than 20 soldiers to an ambush on its boats, a resistance spokesperson says A nine-year-old boy was killed when the Myanmar army fired heavy artillery into a village along the Ayeyarwady River last week in Kachin State’s Shwegu Township, according […]

Junta shelling kills two children, injures several in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

September 26, 2022/in News

Child killed as military shells village during Ayeyarwady River crossing in Kachin State

September 26, 2022/in News

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Junta shelling kills two children, injures several in Myanmar’s Rakhine state

September 26, 2022/in News

Fighting between the military and the ethnic Arakan Army is intensifying in the region.

Military shelling in Myanmar’s Rakhine state over the past four days has claimed the lives of at least two children and injured several others, residents said Monday, as clashes ramp up between junta troops and ethnic insurgents following a two-year lull.

Late on Sunday evening, junta troops from the 9th Military Operations Command (MOC-9) in Kyauktaw township fired shells into Na Ga Yar village, killing 7-year-old Maung Gyi and injuring a man named Kyaw Sein, a resident told RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity.

“A shell fired by the military fell right on the house at about 11 p.m. and went through the roof,” the resident said. “That was the only one that fell on our village, but around 30 shells fell along the banks of the [nearby] Kyauktaw river.”

The boy, who is also known as Moung Ko Naing, was buried on Monday and Kyaw Sein is currently receiving medical treatment, the resident said. Some inhabitants of Na Ga Yar have fled to nearby villages, he added.

Separately, residents told RFA that a seven-year-old from Buthidaung township’s Ah Twin Hnget Thay village was killed and two residents of North Tha Bauk Chaung village were wounded on Sept. 23 when the 8th regiment of the junta’s Buthidaung Township Border Guard Force fired shells toward Tha Bauk Chaung village. Additional details of the incident were not immediately available.

The incident in Na Ga Yar came just four days after a shell fired by MOC-9 injured four members of a family in the same village, sources said.

Residents reported additional civilian casualties resulting from junta attacks since the weekend.

A man staying at the Thein San Guest House in Kyauktaw’s Ywama ward was injured by a stray bullet on Saturday, while a 21-year-old woman and her two children were injured on Monday when a shell fired by a junta naval boat exploded in Minbya township’s Khaung Laung village, sources said.

Of the shelling on Monday, residents said that the clash erupted after members of the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) intercepted two naval vessels traveling upriver from the capital Sittwe to Minbya between Khaung Laung and Laung Shay villages.

“Two Z-craft [boats] came up from Sittwe at about 9 a.m. When they approached our village, [a helicopter] arrived, hovering above. Soon afterwards, we heard the sound of fighting as the vessels approached Khaung Laung village,” said a resident of nearby Thut Pon Chaung village.

“I think the AA fired at the navy. Both vessels were hit. We heard the gunfire. The aircraft also returned fire.”

The Thut Pon Chaung resident said junta troops were firing from the river between Khaung Laung village to Minbya, and a military unit stationed at Kyein Taung Pagoda in Minbya also fired shells into the area.

Pe Than, a former lawmaker and veteran politician in Rakhine state, condemned junta troops for attacking civilians.

“What we have seen is that as the fighting throughout Rakhine state has intensified, the junta is targeting residents, regardless of whether there are any clashes nearby,” he said.

“The military is doing whatever it wants in the villages. More people are becoming displaced by fighting. It’s like the Myanmar proverb ‘burning down the barn because the mouse cannot be found.’”

He urged residents of the state to “keep their eyes and ears open at all times” as the fighting between the two sides is “likely to become even more severe.”

A Myanmar military helicopter flies over Minbya, Sept. 25, 2022. Credit: Hantar

Growing conflict

Fighting between Myanmar’s military and the AA, which resumed in July after a two-year lull, has intensified and is spreading southward through Rakhine state, sources in the region told RFA last week.

What began as intermittent clashes two months ago in northern Rakhine’s Maungdaw township and across the border to the northeast in neighboring Chin state’s Paletwa township has since spread to the central Rakhine townships of Buthidaung, Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw, and is now expanding to Toungup township in the state’s south-central region, according to residents.

More than 10,000 residents have fled their homes in townships including Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Mrauk-U in the more than two months since the resumption of fighting.

Neither the AA nor the junta has released any news regarding the situation in Rakhine. Attempts by RFA to reach the junta’s spokesman in the state went unanswered on Monday.

The AA recently announced that it had captured the junta’s 352 Light Infantry Battalion camp on Sept. 10 and its Border Guard Station near milepost No. 40 along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh on Aug. 31. The AA claimed that “many junta soldiers were killed” and many others were captured, along with weapons and ammunition.

On Sept. 20, Junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw that the military is trying to recapture the two locations.

Junta shelling has killed three children and three adults and wounded 18 people since fighting resumed in Buthidaung, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw and Minbya townships.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

RFA News

Child killed as military shells village during Ayeyarwady River crossing in Kachin State

September 26, 2022/in News

A junta column fires artillery into a village in the attempted advance, but loses more than 20 soldiers to an ambush on its boats, a resistance spokesperson says

A nine-year-old boy was killed when the Myanmar army fired heavy artillery into a village along the Ayeyarwady River last week in Kachin State’s Shwegu Township, according to a member of the resistance.

On September 22, a unit of some 100 soldiers from the junta’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 78—under the supervision of Light Infantry Division 88—attempted to cross the river in boats from the village of Kyun Taw to Moe Sit, on the opposite bank, when they came under attack.

The Kachin People’s Defence Force (KPDF) chapter from the town of Myohla, more than 20 miles northwest of Moe Sit, ambushed the column from their position in the village at around 2pm. The military forces still in Kyun Taw responded by firing artillery in the direction of the resistance.

Several of the junta’s shells hit the village of Moe Sit, killing nine-year-old Zwe Naing Moe. A Myohla KPDF spokesperson told Myanmar Now that the boy was hiding when he was hit by one of the blasts.

Four other civilians were reportedly injured in the attack, including a local teacher who lost his leg. Further information about the villagers who were wounded was not available at the time of reporting, as most of Moe Sit’s residents had fled. At least one home was also burned down.

During the one-hour battle, the resistance forces destroyed multiple boats and killed an estimated 27 soldiers, according to the Myohla KPDF spokesperson.

“[The military] fired both automatic weapons and heavy weapons as soon as they started crossing the river and we managed to sink three of their ferries. So many of them died although some jumped into the water, swam away and escaped,” he said.
Shwegu_tsp.png

Map of Shwegu Township showing the locations of Myohla town and the villages of Kyauk Ta Lone, Kyun Taw and Moe Sit along the Ayeyarwady River

The IB 78 column had left the village of Kyauk Ta Lone in western Shwegu days earlier and had since been occupying Kyun Taw.

Starting on the morning of September 23, the remaining 80 junta troops based in Kyun Taw began searching homes in the village, causing more locals in the area to flee.

The Myohla KPDF withdrew from Moe Sit due to the proximity of the Myanmar army soldiers.

“The junta force is still inside the village [of Kyun Taw]. We decided to withdraw so that more villagers would not be harmed,” the resistance force’s spokesperson said.

Local anti-junta defence forces have repeatedly attacked military vessels travelling along the Ayeyarwady River sending reinforcement troops into Kachin State.

Serious battles have also been taking place in Katha Township, located across the Sagaing Region border with Shwegu Township in Kachin State.

A resistance alliance led by the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front clashed with a junta unit from Light Infantry Battalion 309 near the township’s administrative centre on the same day as the heavy fighting along the Ayeyarwady River in Shwegu.

Myanmar Now News

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ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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