Junta airstrikes killed at least four people and injured another 11 in northern Shan State’s Hsipaw Township over the weekend, according to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
At least six people were reported injured on Saturday, while four were killed and five injured on Sunday, the TNLA’s information team said.
Three of the dead, including a seven-year-old child, were killed in Hkar Lein, a village less than three miles southwest of the town of Hsipaw, while the fourth died in the town. One of the five civilians injured on Sunday was a member of a social welfare team.
According to the TNLA, the airstrikes continued until Monday, but there were no further confirmed reports of casualties. The aerial assaults also damaged a number of houses, the group added.
On September 23, two elderly women and two teenage boys were killed in an airstrike on Nar Loi, a village about 25 miles northwest of Hsipaw. Three people, including a two-year-old child, also sustained serious injuries in that incident.
The attacks on Hsipaw come amid efforts by the TNLA to capture the junta’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 23 base just north of the town. Fierce fighting has been reported in the area since early August.
According to local news outlet Shwe Phee Myay, the TNLA captured two junta bases, operated by Light Infantry Battalions 503 and 504, about two miles north of the IB 23 base last week.
Hsipaw is situated between the TNLA-controlled town of Kyaukme and northern Shan State’s largest city, Lashio, which was captured two months ago by its ally, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.
Local aid groups estimate that half of the town’s population has been displaced by recent fighting. Most are currently sheltering in four locations in the town, as well as near a pagoda located about five miles west of Hsipaw.
“There are no food shortages for the displaced people, but we are concerned about their safety as bombs have landed near their camps,” a representative of the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) told Myanmar Now.
According to SHRF data, junta airstrikes killed 19 people and injured another 19 in Hsipaw between July 19 and August 25.
