Two people were injured in a junta airstrike on Kunchaunggyi Village in Thayetchaung (a.k.a. Kaseido) Township, near Myitta Town in Dawei Township, Tanintharyi Region at around 11:30am on 7 January.
The airstrike happened even though there was no fighting in the area.
Villagers Saw Khwar Do and Naw Yuri Paw were injured and several buildings were damaged when junta aircraft dropped two bombs on Kunchaunggyi Village, according to locals.
Following the bombing the village school was forced to close as a security measure. Many of the villagers are also now so frightened they have taken to leaving the village at night because they are scared there will be further airstrikes.
A woman from Kunchaunggyi Village said: “After the airstrike, the village school has been temporarily closed, and schools in nearby villages have also been shut down due to security concerns. Parents are reluctant to send their children to school, and fear has gripped all of us.”
The village is in Dawei District in an area where the Karen National Union (KNU)’s 4th Brigade is active. Padoh Saw Eh Nar, the KNU Secretary for Myeik and Dawei districts suggested the junta may have attacked the village, despite there being no fighting in the area, to protect its base in nearby Myitta Town and as an act of intimidation.
He said to KIC: “The junta seemed concerned that resistance forces might attack the Kyaukmetaung base near Myitta Town, so it bombed areas in which it believed our resistance coalition was operating. However, it ended up targeting a residential village rather than the actual positions of resistance forces.”
On 22 April 2024, a coalition led by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the KNU attacked a junta convoy between Dawei Town and the junta’s Kyaukmetaung base as it was taking troops and provisions to the base.
In December 2024, there was fierce fighting between the junta and a coalition of resistance forces around Kyauknimaw Village in the Ashaetaw area of Dawei District near the border with Thailand, after the junta launched offensives against Kyauknimaw Village from the air, ground and waterways. IDPs in the Ashaetaw area are currently in urgent need of medication.
