Junta airstrikes on villages in Ayeyarwady Region’s Lemyethna Township, overnight on 4 and 5 May 2025, destroyed about 10 houses and injured one person.

Wetkone and Mangyipinkwin villages were targeted in overnight airstrikes, late in the evening on 4 May and in the early hours of 5 May. Mangyipinkwin Village endured five bombing runs in total that destroyed about 10 houses and left one man, Ko Tun Aye, injured.

A Lemyethna township resident said: “The airstrikes in Mangyipinkwin injured a man and burned down houses. The junta targeted the area where its troops were forced to withdraw after clashes with the Arakan Army (AA).”

Fortunately, most of the village’s residents had already previously left the villages because of escalating military tensions in the area. Ko Tun Aye, the injured man had stayed behind to look after his house after most of the other residents had already left.

Wetkone and Mangyipinkwin villages are in the foothills of the Arakan Mountains, known in Myanmar as the Rakhine Yoma mountain range.

At the end of March 2025 there was heavy fighting between the junta and an Arakan Army (AA)-led coalition in that area, around the Lemyethna Township villages of Wetkone, Mangyipinkwin, Pantawgyi, Sankone, and Zeepinkwyin. The AA-led coalition took control of Pantawgyi Village and the junta forces were forced to retreat to Sisonkone Village in Lemyethna Township, close to Lemyethna Town.

Following that defeat, the junta started carrying out frequent airstrikes on Lemyethna Township. Between 1 March and 30 April the junta conducted around 40 airstrikes on the township, which killed four people, including a monk and destroyed about 200 homes and some religious buildings.

Another resident of  Lemyethna Township suggested that the junta may have launched the recent airstrikes on Wetkone and Mangyipinkwin villages because it suspected that the AA and its allies were sheltering there.

He said to DMG: “The areas around Pantawgyi Village are already controlled by the AA and alliance forces, making it impossible for junta ground columns to operate there. The junta is bombing these villages because it suspects that AA troops are hiding there. Most of the locals have already evacuated, leaving only a few people behind.”

The AA-led coalition has been conducting military operations in Ayeyarwady Region since January 2025. It has managed to gain footholds in the Ayeyarwady Region townships of Lemyethna, Yegyi, Pathein, and Thabaung, but it has currently halted its offensive.