Myanmar junta bombs captives held by insurgents killing 12

By RFA Burmese2024.10.29

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A junta airstrike on a rebel-controlled prison in Myanmar killed 12 prisoners of war and wounded about 60, an anti-junta militia force told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.

Insurgent groups have made unprecedented gains across the country in their fight against the junta that overthrew an elected government in early 2021, capturing towns, military bases and numerous outposts, as well as large numbers of troops.

The military has responded to the advances by anti-junta forces with relentless air strikes, killing fighters, many civilians and inevitably some of the insurgents’ captives.

A pro-democracy guerrilla force known as the Mandalay People’s Defense Force, or PDF, said that junta aircraft bombed a detention center under its control on Monday evening, killing eight junta soldiers and four other prisoners captured in fighting.

A Mandalay PDF spokesperson, who asked to be identified as Osmond, said the military had struck the detention center on purpose, though he did not say how he knew that.

“We’re keeping the prisoners of war we capture in battle in good condition but because of the fighting now, it’s intentional, it’s a waste of lives,” he said.

RFA tried to contact the junta’s main spokesperson, Zaw Min Htun, to ask about the incident but he did not respond.

The PDF spokesperson said the wounded prisoners were getting medical treatment.

The anti-junta force declined to say exactly where the detention center was located but other sources said it was in Ho Hko village, on a road between the towns of Nawnghkio and Mogok, near the border of the Mandalay region and Shan state.

Residents of the area said they believed junta forces had bombed the village as they sought to push the insurgents back after the military captured the village of Gantkaw village, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.

“The people they captured were in the jail in Ho Hko, in the prison, and that’s where they dropped the bombs,” said one resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons. “There are over 10 people dead and over 50 were hit. Now towards Gantkaw, we can expect more bombing.”

Fighters from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army ethnic minority force and allied PDF fighters were aiming to block the military’s advance, witnesses in the area told RFA.

Rebel forces have captured some 40 junta bases and 12 towns in the Mandalay region and Shan state over the past year and are now within a few dozen kilometers of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city.

In September, the air force bombed a prison controlled by the Arakan Army in Rakhine state in western Myanmar killing 17 people, including captured junta troops, the rebel group said.

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Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.