Two fighter jets from Taungoo Airbase have flown airstrikes on Bonmatee, Thayettan, and Kywelan villages in Htantabin Township, Taungoo District, Bago Region, killing three civilians, according to sources on the ground.
The victims include two 22- and 30-year-old women from Kywelan and Bonmatee villages. The regime’s airstrike also injured about five people, caused damage to houses and forced residents to flee to safety.
“There was no fighting, but yesterday afternoon there was a KNU meeting in Bonmatee. Three or four PDF members came to the village. It seems that military informants reported it. Two planes came and dropped bombs in the evening. Three people were killed,” a source close to the residents told the Karen Information Center.
Another person close to the resistance forces claimed that the KNU networking didn’t take place in the village, but the junta’s air force not only attacked with seven bombs, but also fired machine guns.
“It’s true that the KNU networking meeting was held on that day, but I’m not sure if it was held in the villages that were hit by the air raids. Shots were also reported in the area on the other days. They didn’t bomb the villages where the networking meetings were held, but the other villages, and they did it deliberately,” he said.
According to a person close to the displaced, the military council has also threatened the displaced not to spread the news about the bombing.
“The army has forbidden those who fled to the Taungoo region to talk about the situation in the villages. So they don’t dare to talk about the villagers who were shot,” he said.
Also in the last week of April, a middle-aged man was wounded by shrapnel when the junta base in Zayatgyi shelled Bonmatee village with artillery shells, sources on the ground said.
The military council has intensified airstrikes in KNU-controlled areas since early 2023.
In the three months from 1 January to 31 March this year, some 116 airstrikes were carried out against civilian areas in KNU territory, according to the KNU Information Department.
Sent by KIC.