SITTWE (UCAN): The military junta of Myanmar stepped up its bombing campaign in western Rakhine state carrying out 16 airstrikes in one morning while residents in the besieged state capital of Sittwe live in fear of being used as human shields against the advancing Arakan Army.
Y-12 drones were used to bomb the towns of Pauk Taw and Ma Nawsri, and Thawin Chaung and Lapang Pyar villages on the morning of June 11, the Arakan Army said in a statement, adding that at least 10 civilians were injured in the strikes.
“They are targeting towns, villages, hospitals, clinics, markets, schools, monasteries, and civilian movement areas with naval, artillery, and airstrikes,” the statement added.
That followed the deaths of 13 people, including three Buddhist monks, and another 40 people wounded by airstrikes on a Sagaing monastery southwest of Mandalay according to a report by The Irrawaddy.
Fighting has intensified in the western theater of Myanmar’s civil war in recent weeks amid claims of atrocities blamed on the junta which the exiled National Unity Government [NUG] wants referred to international criminal courts. This includes the massacre of scores of civilians near Sittwe over two days at the end of last month which the NUG and Arakan Army say was inflicted by the junta’s notorious 101 column.
The Arakan Army said the junta was “suffering significant losses” and increasingly bombing towns and villages it controls including civilian areas in and around the townships of Maungdaw, Ann, and Thandwe where current battles are intensifying.
Meanwhile, the All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress says residents from more than 12 villages to the north of Sittwe have been forced out of their homes by the military and ordered to the capital where half the population has fled since fighting intensified in February.
“The regime’s military wants to lock up all the people in the town as hostages in order to deter an AA [Arakan Army] attack,” a resident was quoted as saying by The Irrawaddy, adding that the military plans to use the villagers as human shields to fortify Sittwe.
Reports say thousands of villagers were also ordered to demolish their homes before they were given five days to leave and forced to walk to Sittwe.
Junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, has lost control of five states and Myanmar’s borders since a dry season offensive was launched in November by the NUG, its armed wing the People’s Defence Force and some 20 ethnic armed organisations.
