Myanmar Spring Chronicle – November 12, Scene
(MoeMaKa) November 13, 2024
A Severe Incident from the Airstrikes: Intensified Military Operations in Northern Shan State
Airstrikes and bombings from aircraft have become a military strategy for the junta forces, which are losing control on the ground. Before the 2021 coup, air attacks were rare and only used in specific battles against ethnic armed groups. During that time, airstrikes served as support for ground battles, targeting encampments of ethnic armed groups when the military was cornered. But since the coup, airstrikes have increased gradually, now occurring daily across the country.
In clashes involving junta troops and ethnic armed forces or PDF (People’s Defense Force) units, it has become common for junta forces to use airstrikes on towns and territories controlled by ethnic armed groups or PDFs, based on gathered intelligence. Nearly the entire country is now experiencing military confrontations, and the junta has lost significant control over towns and regional military headquarters, making it challenging to combat ethnic armed groups with previous superiority. As a result, airstrikes have become a tactic to relieve ground forces.
The junta regularly bombs towns and villages they lost to PDF or ethnic armed groups, targeting suspected PDF or ethnic force gatherings based on ground intelligence. Notably, a 2022 helicopter attack on a monastery school in Let Yet Kone Village, Depayin Township, Sagaing Region, killed 13 people, including children under 10. In another incident in April 2023, an airstrike on Pazigyi Village, Kantbalu Township, killed about 170 civilians attending a gathering.
Since late 2023 to the end of 2024, there have been daily airstrikes in regions like Sagaing, northern Shan, Rakhine, Kachin, Chin, Karen, Tanintharyi, and Karenni. On November 12, the junta launched an airstrike on Naung Cho, a TNLA-controlled town in northern Shan State, and on Mogok in Mandalay, a city known for gemstone mining. Reports indicate that 11 civilians were killed, and over a dozen were injured in an airstrike that hit a restaurant in Naung Cho, where travelers were resting.
Despite junta claims on its Telegram channels that the site was a gathering place for TNLA members, such civilian areas are evidently not military targets. Ordinary administration offices, civilian institutions, religious buildings, hospitals, and schools should not be targets. However, junta forces prefer not to see normal civilian activity in ethnic-controlled towns, where people live cautiously or leave due to fear.
Following the junta leader’s visit to China for the Mekong countries summit, airstrikes have intensified, with signs of further military offensives. Reports say vehicle movement has been restricted from southern to northern Shan State, with vehicles only allowed to enter southern Shan State from the north, likely due to preparation for an offensive in Naung Cho, Kyaukme, and Lashio after the China visit.