Fighting intensified around Banmauk Town in Sagaing Region, near the Kachin State border and held by resistance forces, and the junta carried out airstrikes for two consecutive days.

A local reported that for most of the mornings of November 29 and 30, the junta used both jet fighters and Y12 utility aircraft to drop bombs around Banmauk Town.

“There had been airstrikes previously, but things had been quiet for a while and the planes stopped coming. Then at the end of November, they launched two days of strikes in a row. Bombs were dropping from aircraft all morning,” said a town resident.  

Fierce battles broke out as the junta and its ally, the Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA), launched a major offensive to retake Banmauk.

The fighting has been sporadic at times but has intensified in recent days, the source added.

“The junta called in airstrikes as the ground fighting intensified. The warplanes bombed areas around the town. The clashes had been on and off before, but lately they were happening almost every day,” he told KNG.

Thousands of locals are fleeing to safety as fighting escalates in Banmauk. On November 18, airstrikes struck a healthcare facility near the town and also hit Banmauk Prison, killing two health workers.

Between early April and late July, shortly after the deadly earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, the coup military regime carried out airstrikes on 30 hospitals, clinics, and healthcare facilities across the country, according to the Ministry of Health of the resistance-run National Unity Government (NUG).

photo credit - CJ