Death toll rises in airstrike on Kyauktaw detention site

A junta aerial bombing at an Arakan Army (AA) detention facility in Kyauktaw, Rakhine State killed 21 people—a higher number of civilian deaths than previously reported—and injured 30 on Monday evening, according to the AA and sources on the ground. The camp hit by the airstrike, located on the boundary between Kyauktaw and Ponnagyun townships, housed prisoners of war who had been captured by the AA, as well as the prisoners’ families. The deceased included 12 men, five women including two who were pregnant, and four children under the age of 15, including an infant less than two months old, according to the AA’s tally. There were 14 men, nine women, and seven children among the injured, according to the AA’s count, with four of the children under five years old. Infirmary damaged by bombs at the AA detention facility (Photo: Arakan Princess Media) A reporter who visited the scene said the bombs damaged an infirmary, resting area, and sleeping quarters at the camp. “The Arakan Army said the prisoners were to be released around the end of this month. Contact had already been made with their families,” the reporter said. “People are heartbroken that bombs were dropped at such a time,” he added. “There are families here. There are children too. On the day of the bombing, the children were screaming and crying.” Another journalist on the scene this week reported that the survivors and injured were in a state of shock after the bombing, and said they were apprehensive that further airstrikes could occur. Reports from Rakhine-based media outlets described harrowing scenes in the detention facility’s medical ward, where the injured were still being housed and treated despite the damage from the bomb blasts. The camp housed prisoners of war from the Light Infantry Battalion 539 base, which the AA took over in January 2024, and Artillery Battalion 377 base in Kyauktaw. The AA has taken over 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships from junta forces, capturing thousands of prisoners of war—ranking as high as brigadier generals—and their families. The military is fighting the AA and its allies in several of Myanmar’s regions as well as Rakhine State, including clashes at the Nat Yay Kan base in Magway Region’s Ngape Township and near a junta armaments factory in Pandaung Township, Bago Region.

Death toll rises in airstrike on Kyauktaw detention site

The Arakan Army (AA) has now confirmed 21 fatalities, including a one-month-old infant and three other children under five years old, from the junta attack on a camp housing prisoners of war

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