The military responded to attacks by anti-junta forces with air and artillery strikes. After four days of intense battles with the military in northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, armed resistance groups have occupied the city of Kawlin, but residents and aid workers say the fighting has displaced 50,000 people, stoking fears of a humanitarian crisis.
On Nov. 3, anti-junta People’s Defense Force paramilitaries under the shadow National Unity Government and ethnic Kachin Independence Army soldiers launched attacks on a junta police station, general administration office and schools where troops were stationed in downtown Kawlin.
The attacks sparked clashes that lasted until Nov. 6, during which the military responded with airstrikes on the district-level city, an aid worker told RFA Burmese on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
By the time the dust had settled on Monday, the People’s Defense Force, or PDF, and Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, had assumed joint control of Kawlin, but at least 10 civilians were dead and 50,000 others had fled their homes to shelter on the outskirts of the city, the aid worker said.
“About four or five … people were also injured by small arms and shelling,” he said, adding that the bodies of the 10 dead were discovered as rescue workers cleared debris from city streets on Nov. 6.
Anti-junta forces are providing medical treatment to the injured, although the exact number of casualties is still being determined, the aid worker said.
‘Afraid of airstrikes’
A woman who fled the city on Nov. 4 as airstrikes and artillery strikes intensified told RFA that the displaced “don’t feel safe returning home” amid a lack of security....
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