ISTANBUL

The Burma Air Forces carried out airstrikes that killed at least five civilians and injured 13 others in central Myanmar, local media reported on Wednesday.

The junta’s air force targeted Chatkan village in Pauk Township, Magway Region, on Tuesday, according to local outlet DVB.

“One of the bombs landed on a shop, killing five people instantly,” a humanitarian aid worker in Chatkan said, adding that three of the 13 injured civilians were in “critical condition.”

Ten other people were also injured in the bombing.

The area is partially controlled by the People’s Defense Force (PDF).

Formed in 2021, the PDF is the armed wing of Myanmar’s National Unity Government, established to fight the military junta after the Feb. 1, 2021 coup.

Earlier, the PDF claimed it killed at least 18 junta soldiers in Pauk’s Thichauk village on Feb. 4, as more than 5,000 people were forced to flee their homes due to airstrikes and clashes in the area.

Last month, the UN said at least 170 civilians were killed in more than 400 aerial attacks during Myanmar’s election period.

Ethnic clashes have intensified as the country remains engulfed in civil conflict nearly four years after the February 2021 military coup.

The 2021 military takeover ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy and plunged the country into more than four years of emergency rule.

More than 6,000 people have since been killed and nearly three million displaced due to fighting between the junta and opposition groups, according to rights monitors.