18th June 2021
Below is a press release from the US embassy in Yangon. It confirms the devastation I reported a few days ago. It is nice to see that sources are still holding good.
The activists are striking back in Yangon at selected targets.
An army truck with regime soldiers on board was blown up in Yangon’s Tamwe Township on Friday afternoon in the most serious attack to date on a junta target in the city.
Witnesses said they saw soldiers on board the truck, which was parked outside an office of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, before the explosion. The blast occurred within walking distance of the township’s police station.
The blast at around 3:25 p.m. rocked the whole neighbourhood. Local people saw a plume of black smoke snaking up toward the sky while the vehicle was completely engulfed in flames.
Gunfire-like sounds could be heard for a few minutes, apparently from exploding ammunition on board the truck.
Casualties had yet to be confirmed as the area was sealed off by security forces following the explosion. However, photos of blown-up body parts including hands lying on the road were circulated on Facebook.
Since last month, Yangon has seen periodic attacks against regime targets. Local administrators have been shot dead at close range on the streets, and sporadic bombings have been reported. However, Friday’s attack in Tamwe is unprecedented in its scale. The regime has attributed previous attacks to anti-regime resistance forces, but no one has claimed responsibility for any of them so far.
Source The Irrawaddy 18th June 2021.
Tamwe police station is in a good residential area on the fringe of downtown Yangon, close to where I used to stay. It is about 1km from the German, Japanese and Philippine embassies.
Below are more pictures of bomb damage in Tamwe. It appears that this is at Tamwe market a few hundred metres down Kyaik Ka San road from the police station.
More IDPs (Internally Displaced People) are taking refuge in the jungle highlands of Chin State in Northeast Myanmar.
Estimates now put the number of IDPs at over 200,000 throughout the country, and Covid 19 cases are increasing. The junta have also charged the previous administrator of the covid vaccination program with high treason.
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