Local military council administrators, their offices and army vehicles are struck in a series of shootings and bombings on and in the days preceding the anniversary of 8-8-88

Junta personnel were targeted in fatal attacks in Yangon over the weekend and on Monday as the country marked the 34th anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy movement, local sources said. 

A former administrator for Aung San Ward in Insein Township was shot along with his wife by two armed and unidentified assailants as they walked through their neighbourhood at 8pm on Saturday.  

The gunmen arrived on a motorcycle and gunned down the couple, injuring 45-year-old Tin Maung Naing with a bullet to the thigh. His wife, Thi Thi Naing, died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to a police source who spoke to Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity. 

He said that five 9mm pistol shells were found at the scene of the shooting, for which no group had claimed responsibility at the time of reporting. 

Explosions occurred in two Yangon townships the following night and on Monday morning, according to the police source and residents of the respective areas. 

The first bomb went off at 9:40pm on Sunday night at the junta’s local administration office in North Okkalapa Township’s Ward E. The township’s anti-coup People’s Defence Force announced that it had detonated the remote-controlled device in collaboration with another allied urban guerrilla group. 

The extent of the damage caused by the blast was not known at the time of reporting. 

Two military vehicles were also reportedly targeted in a bombing near Yadanar Road in Thaketa Township at around 8am on Monday morning. 

"I heard a loud noise and asked around about what happened. People in the neighbourhood said that some individuals tossed bombs into two military vehicles that were travelling on the road,” an area resident told Myanmar Now, adding that an ambulance arrived shortly after the incident.

Around one hour later, another bomb reportedly went off at an old petrol station on the same road, he said. An unexploded device was detonated in a controlled explosion by junta troops, and soldiers were seen stopping and searching passing pedestrians and buses in the area. 

Another member of the junta’s government mechanism—66-year-old 100-household administrator Kyaw Min Han of Tamwe Township’s East Kyauk Myaung Gyi ward—was killed in a Monday afternoon shooting by a local resistance group.  

Three men arrived at his office claiming they wanted to register guests staying at their residence, as the junta requires. Kyaw Min Han refused to allow them entry, and the men shot him in the chest, the police source said. 

Wi Moutti, an urban guerrilla force active in the area, claimed responsibility for the attack and told Myanmar Now that Kyaw Min Han and one other individual were both injured. 

A member of Wi Moutti said that the staff in Kyaw Min Hans’s office had been involved in the arrest of several young protesters in recent months, but Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify her claim. 

The military council deployed troops across Yangon on Monday, more than three decades after massive demonstrations broke out across the country as the public demanded an end to decades of military rule. Amid tightened security measures, activists in the city paid tribute to the pro-democracy movement—remembered annually on August 8, 1988, or 8-8-88—by carrying black umbrellas on which the number eight was printed in white Burmese script. 

More than one year after the Febuary 2021 coup, resistance forces in urban centres continue to carry out targeted attacks on ward administrators, soldiers, and alleged military informants in an attempt to destroy the pillars of the junta’s claim to power. 

Army chief Min Aung Hlaing said in an August 1 speech that since the coup, there had been more than 2,000 such assaults on military infrastructure and personnel reported in Yangon alone.

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Fighting has been almost continuous in AA territory since late last month, the group’s spokesperson said on Thursday

Regime forces have abandoned seven bases in northern Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township amid growing tensions in the region, according to the Arakan Army (AA).

AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha made the claim at a press conference held on Thursday. 

“We didn’t seize control of those bases, the junta soldiers who were stationed in them just left,” he said, adding that there have been numerous clashes in the area since last month.

According to Khaing Thukha, tensions began to escalate after AA troops captured 14 junta personnel, including a police major and members of a regime-backed Border Guard Force, on July 18.

Since then, he said, there has been almost continuous fighting in Maungdaw and in southern Shan State’s Paletwa Township.

Khaing Thukha said that on several occasions, soldiers who left the bases were arrested by AA forces as retaliation for the detention of civilians accused of associating with the group.

He added that there are currently around 50 such individuals in junta custody. Many, he said, have been tortured and are facing criminal charges.

“They just make up excuses to arrest anyone they please,” said Khaing Thukha, adding that the AA has been making efforts through an unnamed third-party organisation to win the release of the prisoners.

Meanwhile, he urged members of the public to exercise caution when travelling, as the military continues to make arrests.

“We are having problems because the military is oppressing civilians in various ways. I just want to warn the public to be very careful while travelling,” he said.

Although the AA and the military entered into an informal ceasefire agreement in November 2020 after two years of fierce fighting, clashes have resumed since late last year.

Since then, the situation has steadily deteriorated. The arrest of several AA negotiation officers in May signalled another dramatic decline in trust between the two sides.

Khiang Thukha also warned on Thursday that “serious action” would be taken against junta-appointed officials in Rakhine State if they continued to cooperate with the regime.

Others who collaborate with the military should also be prepared to face consequences, he added.

“We will take necessary action against anyone who works for the regime, because they are one of the reasons that the military is able to terrorise civilians the way they do,” he said.

Myanmar’s junta has not commented on the recent situation in Rakhine State or responded to the AA’s claims.

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Francisco, also known as Saya Ko, was killed near his home in Pekhon Township on Thursday, local sources said

The leader of a group representing the Kayan people was shot and killed near his home in southern Shan State’s Pekhon Township on Thursday, according to local sources. 

Francisco, also known as Saya Ko, was the chair of the Kayan Literature and Culture Committee, a group that promotes the culture of the Kayan people, an ethnic Karenni sub-group.

He was killed near his farm in Naung Lai, according to a resident of the village who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.

“Two gunmen approached him at his farm in the northern part of the village. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing, due to the complicated political situation,” he said.

Baham Htan, an ethnic Kayan who serves as the deputy minister for human rights in the civilian National Unity Government, called the assassination a great loss for the Kayan people.

“It breaks my heart,” he said in a post on social media.

The Kayan Literature and Culture Committee also released a statement condemning the killing, saying that it was not the way to resolve political disputes.

Francisco, 59, served as patron of the committee from 2012 to 2018, and as its chair from 2018 until his death.

In 2010, he was elected to represent Pekhon Township in the Pyitthu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, as an MP for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). 

He ran again for the same seat as a USDP candidate in 2015 but lost. He also made an unsuccessful bid as the party’s candidate for Kayan ethnic affairs minister in Shan State in 2020.

There are around 80,000 Kayan people living in Shan State and another 70,000 in neighbouring Karenni (Kayah) State.

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The Myanmar army and the Shanni Nationalities Army set fire to hundreds of homes in the village of Sezin following a day-long clash with Kachin forces, residents say

Locals have accused the Myanmar army and the Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA) of carrying out an arson attack on a village in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township on Wednesday morning, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of homes and the death of several civilians.

One day earlier, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) had attacked the police station in the village in question—Sezin, some 50km southwest of the town of Hpakant—but military airstrikes prevented the ethnic armed organisation from capturing the post. 

The burning followed a day-long battle on Tuesday in which Myanmar military troops who had been airlifted to the site fought alongside the SNA against the KIA, firing heavy artillery and dropping bombs which destroyed two homes. 

At least eight air attacks were launched during the episode of fighting, locals told Myanmar Now. 

The junta and SNA forces allegedly started torching homes in Wards 4 and 5 in Sezin at 1am, around five hours after the KIA was forced to withdraw. 

“The last time that they came here, they threatened to burn the village down. We had been worried about it ever since,” a 40-year-old Sezin resident said. 

Another man from Sezin explained that the first houses targeted were located near the village’s police station and the monastery. 

“Nothing much is left in the village as they carried out the attack in three separate places. We couldn’t go and put out the fire either, since they would shoot us,” he said, describing how SNA troops fired shots at civilians attempting to extinguish the blaze after the KIA had withdrawn. 

Locals speculated that between 200 and 400 of Sezin’s 700 households were destroyed.

By 4am on Wednesday, the majority of the village’s residents escaped to the villages of Hawng Par and Tar Ma Khan, 20 miles away, the second man from Sezin said. 

At least nine villagers are believed to have been shot and killed as they fled.

“A couple and their child were planning to leave at around 6am and they were all shot dead,” the local man claimed. 

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the number of civilian casualties in the attack. 

Some 200 residents who were unable to leave are said to be trapped inside the Sasannapala monastery, located near the village’s police station, and held hostage by the occupying troops at the time of reporting. 

“We were told that the military was not allowing them to leave the monastery compound. Even the monks can’t leave,” a 50-year-old woman from Sezin said, claiming that she had heard that at least one person, a girl, had been shot for trying to leave. 

KIA forces successfully overran an army outpost a day before their failed attempt to seize control of a police station on Tuesday

When contacted by Myanmar Now to comment on the allegations of arson and murder in the Hpakant Township village, SNA spokesperson Col Sai Aung Mein claimed that members of the KIA and the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF)—who often fight alongside the Kachin army—were the ones who had torched the homes. 

“Most of the people we asked told us that it was the PDF and KIA that torched the village. I heard they’d set up a station inside the police station and that they were still firing shots,” he told Myanmar Now.  

Col Sai Aung Mein added that SNA troops were still stationed at a small base near Hpakant’s border with Homalin Township in Sagaing Region, and had not engaged in any battles with the KIA since Monday. 

Myanmar Now tried to contact KIA information officer Col Naw Bu, but the calls went unanswered. 

Locals previously accused the SNA of carrying out searches in Sezin on two days in late June, and said that tension had risen in the area after the KIA set up a post in the southern part of the village on June 30. 

The Kachin forces surrounded and attacked a junta column that had been carrying out assaults near Sezin on July 16. Serious battles took place over the next three days, with the military launching multiple airstrikes in an attempt to create an escape route for a trapped unit of soldiers. 

After regrouping, the junta forces set up a post on a hill in eastern Sezin. The KIA attacked the station, as well as an SNA checkpoint, on Monday, overrunning both locations.  

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