Myanmar junta bombs insurgent-held gem-mining hub killing 9

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Junta forces bombed a famous ruby-mining town under insurgent control in central Myanmar killing nine people and wounding 13 in a deliberate attack on civilians, an insurgent group official told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.

Junta aircraft bombed three neighborhoods in Mogok on Monday at around 11 p.m. while one of the military’s Russian helicopters also fired into the town for about 30 minutes, they said.

“Nine people died. We have to say it really impacted them badly. The junta wasn’t fighting, they were targeting residents,” said Lway Yay Oo, a spokesperson for the anti-junta Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA.

The insurgent group is part of a three-member alliance that has made striking gains over the past year in northeast Myanmar against forces of the junta that seized power in 2021. The TNLA has been in control of Mogok, in the Mandalay region, since July.

Six men and three women were killed in the air raid, said Lway Yay Oo, adding that a child was among the 13 people being treated for their wounds.

Radio Free Asia could not independently verify details of the attack and calls to Mandalay’s junta spokesperson, Thein Htay, went unanswered.

TNLA fighters were combing through the rubble of 10 homes that were destroyed in the airstrike, said one resident of the town that has been famed for hundreds of years for its rubies and other gem stones.

“They shot directly into residential neighborhoods so everyone is afraid,” said the resident.

The Myanmar military has been pushed back in different regions of the country over the past year and has increasingly been resorting to airstrikes, on both insurgent positions and civilian areas, human rights groups say.

Between January and October, junta airstrikes killed 540 civilians, according to the advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

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Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA staff.