Regime airstrike on AA-held Ponnagyun kills civilian, injures three others

By Admin 18 Sep 2024

DMG Newsroom
18 September 2024, Ponnagyun

One civilian was reportedly killed and three others were injured when a Myanmar military jet fighter bombed Arakan State's Ponnagyun Town on Tuesday.

The civilian casualties were reported after a bomb dropped by the junta plane exploded near the main junction of the Ponnagyun-Rathedaung road at around 4 p.m. on September 17.

"There were many people around when the junta jet fighter dropped a bomb. Some people's injuries are considered life-threatening," said a local resident.

The injured are being treated at a nearby hospital and DMG continues to investigate and obtain more information about the victims.

The Arakkha Army (AA) in March seized control of Ponnagyun, one of several Arakan State townships that the ethnic armed group has captured since fighting between its forces and the military regime began anew in November of last year.

Civilian casualties reported in Ponnagyun Township over recent months have been primarily blamed on junta airstrikes and artillery attacks by battalions based in the Arakan State capital Sittwe.

A local resident was killed and four others were injured after an artillery shell fired by junta forces in Sittwe hit Kywehtoe Village, Ponnagyun Township, on July 23.

"We are afraid of the junta airstrikes. Innocent civilians are being killed or injured in the regime airstrikes. We don't want the military regime to do anything that scares the people," said a local woman from Yaypaukchaung Village.

With such casualties in AA-held areas continuing to rise due to regime aerial and artillery attacks on civilian infrastructure ranging from homes and hospitals to IDP camps and intersections, social organisations have been at the forefront in condemning the junta's conduct.

"The people are suffering from the military regime's human rights violations. We absolutely cannot accept that the military regime is attacking innocent people because it cannot defeat the anti-regime forces," said an official from the Ponnagyun Youths Association.

Myanmar military attacks on civilian targets have increased markedly as the regime has lost territory to the AA.

At least 494 civilians were killed and 886 others were injured by junta airstrikes, artillery attacks, gunfire and landmine blasts during the latest fighting in Arakan State, according to a DMG tally as of September 13.