The junta launched airstrikes and bombed villages near Tigyaing Town in Sagaing Region in the early hours of 20 August 2024, despite there being no fighting in the area at the time.

At around 4:00 am on 20 August a junta fighter jet flew over villages in Tigyaing Township near to Tigyaing Town and dropped three bombs. Shortly after in a follow up airstrike a junta reconnaissance plane strafed the area with machine gun fire, according to a local woman who spoke to The Voice of Shan Ni.

She said: “Early in the morning, at around 4:00 am, the fighter jet dropped two or three bombs. Then, a reconnaissance plane followed, firing machine guns—I could even hear the crackling sounds as bullets hit the ground. There were a lot of shots fired from that plane.”

Residents speculated that the junta might possibly have been acting on intelligence regarding a potential offensive by revolutionary groups and launching preemptive airstrikes on areas where they believed resistance forces may have been hiding.

But, according to the Tigyaing Revolution (TR) revolutionary force far more bombs had been dropped than the locals reported. It claimed that a total of 67 bombs were dropped on the Tigyaing Township villages of Ni Tar, Nawarat, Sanpya, Kokko Kone, and Mya Taung near Tigyaing Town.

Resistance forces had urged residents in villages around Tigyaing Town to evacuate by 18 August due to the risk of potential fighting in the near future.

Since 8 November 2023, a coalition of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and people’s defence forces (PDFs) have been trying to take over Tigyaing Town. In response, the junta has carried out airstrikes that forced people to flee their homes. Many remain displaced after nearly a year.

The junta still has heavily fortified bases in Tigyaing Town that the resistance forces say they are relentlessly working to capture.