Jet attack kills 3 civilians in Myanmar’s Chin state

Junta jets dropped bombs on a village in Chin state, in the west of Myanmar, killing three people including a nine-year-old girl, the Mindat township People’s Administration Group told RFA Monday.

Group spokesman Yaw Man said jets attacked Vung Khung village repeatedly on Saturday morning.

“They shot three times with fighter jets, dropped two 500-pound bombs, and fired with other weapons, sending the villagers running like the world was about to end,” he said. 

“There was a nursing mother who had left her baby behind and fled to another place. She was killed by a bomb that was dropped on the place where she was sheltering on the way home to pick up her baby. Her neighbor’s nine-year-old child died next to her. 

“The locals don’t dare to live in the village anymore, so they are fleeing to their hill farms and other villages.”

Yaw Man said a 65-year-old woman was also killed and a 50-year-old man injured in the attacks.

Locals said there was no reason for the raids because the junta had not been fighting with the Chinland Defense Force.

As well as attacking by air, infantry regiment 274, based in Mindat, fired long-range artillery at the village destroying the school and damaging 10 homes.

The junta has released no statement on the attack and junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun did not answer his phone when called by RFA on Monday.

Last month air attacks on Mindat and Thantiang townships destroyed a monastery and four houses.

RFA data show that 44 civilians have been killed by junta air attacks in Chin state since the February 2021 military coup.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.