Dozens estimated killed in Katha monastery airstrike

After military aircraft bombed a monastery where displaced people were sheltering in Katha, Sagaing Region last Friday, civilian fatalities numbered in the dozens and may have totalled more than 50, according to accounts from locals. Fighting has continued near the site of the airstrike, the casualties of which included monks, children, and people displaced from their homes by clashes on the ground, residents of Katha Township said. The strike on the Maha Lay Htat (Great Four-Storey) Monastery reportedly occurred around 11am during a midday mealtime in Ward 3 of Katha, with bombs landing direct hits on the monastery building while monks ate and devotees served them, according to one local man. “It hit the four-storey building where the abbot lives while the monks were eating,” the man said on the evening after the bombing occurred. “More than one monk was killed. The laypeople offering the meal also died. Many other children and elderly people died as well.” The initial death toll recorded was 20, but further information and accounts from people on the scene suggest a death toll of 50 or more. Katha’s Ward 3 is under the military regime’s control and most survivors of the bombing have fled the area, according to a local source connected to resistance forces, making verification of the number of victims and individual details about them impossible at present. “By yesterday, there were over 50,” the resistance-connected source said of the number of deaths on Monday. “People haven’t dared go out today because of the fighting. Planes have also been bombing incessantly.” Resistance forces commanded by the National Unity Government (NUG), joined by allies in the Kachin Independence Army and smaller anti-junta groups, have been fighting the military for control of territory in Katha since December. After a lull in January and February, the fighting intensified again last week, with anti-junta forces attacking junta troops in Ward 8 on the north side of town hours before the 11am monastery airstrike. "The four-storey monastery was a gathering point for displaced people,” the resistance-connected source explained. “There were monks there and there was no fighting. The fighting was happening on the north side of town, but they intentionally bombed the monastery anyway.” “Fires broke out. Many people were killed,” he continued. “A monk was found dead, sitting upright under a tree. Some had limbs blown off.” Since the fighting began late last year, most Katha residents had already fled to nearby towns and villages. However, some remained in the town, and some residents from the northern part of the town had come to take refuge at the four-story monastery. A burned building on the four-storey monastery compound (Photo: Katha People’s Administration Organization Buildings near the monastery also reportedly caught fire from the aerial bombing. Many bodies could not be recovered before the fires were put out or had sustained too much damage to allow for accurate identification by the time they were found. Katha residents claimed junta soldiers removed slain victims’ bodies from the site of the airstrike the same day it happened, taking some of the remains to Kyan Taw Cemetery in southwestern Katha. Since the airstrike, fighting has reportedly spread from Katha’s north end to other wards, reaching as far as the Myanmar army’s Light Infantry Battalion 309 base to the west and the bank of the Ayeyarwady River to the east. “It’s like being surrounded and attacked from all sides. You can hear the noises from every direction,” the resistance-connected source said on Monday, referring to the gunfire and shelling. “It was quiet for a short time on the day of the airstrike, but it has been continuous since then. Today is quite bad.” Local civilians were displaced from their homes by an airstrike on Ward 6 and fighting in wards 5 and 9 over the weekend. Around 200 monks including novices staying at the Dhamma Sangha Pariyatti Monastery in Ward 9 were among the people who fled, according to displaced locals. The junta has also reportedly evacuated its lower-level administrative personnel from parts of the town. “It’s been three days since the police station was attacked,” a displaced man said. “The administrative staff in Katha, including education officials, have been picked up in helicopters. It’s been three days since the evacuation. Only the army remains.” Junta airstrikes are now confirmed to have hit five Katha wards in the last few days, with much of Ward 10 reportedly burned down or reduced to rubble, according to local sources. While Katha’s 11 urban wards are under junta control, resistance forces have managed to maintain control in most of Katha Township’s nearly 200 surrounding villages since 2023. The town, which is on the Ayeyarwady and accessible by both land and water routes from Kachin State, had a population of more than 160,000 in 2014 according to the census taken that year. Resistance forces under the command of the NUG remain stronger in Sagaing Region than most of the country, having captured and held the towns of Indaw, Maw Luu, Pinlebu, Khampat, Myothit, and Shwe Pyi Aye since the 2021 coup, even as the military retook resistance-held territory in neighbouring Mandalay Region. The junta is heavily reliant on its air supremacy in waging war against anti-junta forces and has continued to carry out airstrikes across the country despite global jet fuel shortages aggravated by the United States’ military operations in Iran, which have forced widespread cancellation of commercial passenger flights. More than 30 military operations and attacks on civilians were documented last Friday—the day of the Katha monastery airstrike—across 15 townships in Myanmar, according to the research group Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica. These included four bombing raids using conventional aircraft and one paramotor light aircraft attack, with the highest casualty numbers reported in Sagaing and Mandalay regions.

Dozens estimated killed in Katha monastery airstrike

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