Myanmar: Armed group says 11 civilians killed in junta air strikes

BANGKOK – Air strikes by the Myanmar military in northern Shan state killed 11 civilians and wounded 11 others, a spokeswoman for an ethnic minority armed group fighting the junta told AFP on Friday.

The junta is battling broad armed opposition to its 2021 coup. Its soldiers are accused of bloody rampages and using air and artillery strikes to punish civilians.

“They bombed two areas in Namhkam town at around 1 a.m. local time on Friday,” said Lway Yay Oo of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).

Eleven people were killed and 11 injured in the attacks, she said, adding that the office of a local political party was also damaged.

The dead included five men, four women and two children, she said.

Namhkam is located about five kilometers from the border with the Chinese province of Yunnan. After weeks of fighting last year, TNLA fighters took control of the town.

Images on social media showed people searching through the rubble and carrying an apparently injured young person.

A video showed several buildings destroyed. AFP reporters located the video at a location in Namhkam and said it had not previously appeared online.

AFP could not reach a junta spokesman for comment.

Since last year, the military has lost large areas near the border with China in northern Shan state to an alliance of armed ethnic minority groups and people's defense forces fighting to quell the coup.

The groups have taken over a regional military command and seized control of lucrative border crossings for trade, leading to rare public criticism from military supporters of the junta's top leadership.

Earlier this week, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing warned civilians in areas held by armed ethnic minority groups to prepare for military counterattacks, state media reported.

The junta also announced this week that it had declared the TNLA a “terrorist” organization.

Anyone who supports or contacts the TNLA and two other ethnic minority armed groups – the Arakan Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army – now faces legal action.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's government in 2021 and launched a crackdown that sparked an armed insurgency.

According to the United Nations, the conflicts since the coup have forced more than 2.7 million people to flee their homes.