Airstrike by Myanmar regime wipes out family in Sagaing’s Maw Luu Township

Eight people, including an infant, were killed late last week during a junta airstrike on a village in Sagaing Region’s resistance-controlled Maw Luu Township, according to local sources. The attack took place at around 9pm on Thursday (January 28), when a fighter jet dropped two bombs on the village of Layhpo, killing seven family members and a neighbour, the sources said. “Only two bodies were recovered intact. I heard the rest had to be collected in pieces. Eight people have been confirmed dead,” a resident of the area told Myanmar Now. There was no ground fighting near Layhpo at the time of the attack, the resident added. The were also no resistance forces based in the village of around 100 households. “There has never been an airstrike in these parts before, or even a single battle,” he said, noting, however, that the village is within the “liberated area” controlled by the anti-regime National Unity Government (NUG). The deadly airstrike was the third to claim lives in Maw Luu Township last month. On January 2, an aerial assault killed one student and injured two others at a school in the village of Bago, and on January 21, five people died after bombs were dropped on an NUG administrative office in Manhe, a village about five miles from the town of Maw Luu. Most of the victims in that attack were resistance fighters, including a member of the Kachin Independence Army. Maw Luu, situated on the border with Kachin State, has been administered by the NUG since its capture by resistance forces in December 2023. The following year, they launched attacks on Indaw, some 22 miles to the south, finally taking control of it in April of last year after eight months of fighting. Indaw is a key town in the region, known as the gateway to Kachin State. Resistance forces control several Sagaing Region towns near the Kachin border, including Indaw, Maw Luu, Banmauk, and Pinlebu in Katha, Kawlin, and Kanbalu districts, known as the “K-3 Region.” At the end of last year, they launched an offensive to take the town of Katha, briefly holding several wards before being forced to withdraw. The regime intensified its airstrikes on resistance-held areas during its month-long, three-phase election, which ended on January 25. These strikes killed at least 170 civilians during this period, according to the United Nations. The deadliest day was January 22, when dozens were killed while attending a funeral in Bhamo in Kachin State. At least five more people, including an infant, also died that day in a strike on a wedding in Aunglan Township, Magway Region. Days earlier, another attack on a pagoda compound sheltering displaced persons killed two people, including an infant, in Magway’s Salin Township. According to the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights, junta airstrikes across the country killed 198 civilians, including 15 children under the age of 18, and injured 375 others in December 2025 alone.

Airstrike by Myanmar regime wipes out family in Sagaing’s Maw Luu Township

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