Dozens of deaths confirmed in Myanmar air force’s attack on Sagaing Region wedding

An airstrike by the junta in Mingin Township, Sagaing Region on Monday morning killed 28 people, emergency response volunteers said this week after initial reports estimated a lower death toll. The victims died in a bombing raid by the junta air force during a wedding ceremony in Mataw village, Mingin Township, on Monday morning. Myanmar Now previously reported that at least seven victims had died based on information from local news sources, but has since confirmed that the number was higher. “The kind of bomb they used was a highly destructive type, and they caused such massive damage because they had a clear shot at a large building and were only about 50 feet from the crowd,” said Capt. Zay Thu Aung, a defector from the Myanmar air force who has joined the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement. “The bodies are in bad condition,” a local rescue worker in Mataw said. “There were mangled limbs, dismemberments, decapitations, and bodies blown apart at the waist by the explosions.” There were six children among the deceased, according to the rescue volunteer. Victims’ bodies after the airstrike (SRF) 12 of the 54 people who sustained injuries in the attack were injured severely, he said, adding that there were not enough medical supplies or doctors available in the area to provide them with adequate treatment. “There were very few bodies that we could identify with certainty. We had to do our best to identify most of them based on missing persons’ reports,” said Htay, the spokesperson for the Mingin Township People’s Administration Team (PAT). Junta fighter planes reportedly bombed the village twice at around 8:15am on Monday. One bomb landed near the wedding pavilion and another fell near the newlyweds’ house, according to Htay. “There were people in both the pavilion and the dining hall. The bomb fell and detonated just 20 feet from the pavilion, and the other landed about 100 feet away,” Htay said, citing accounts from village residents. Weddings are usually held from around 6am to 8am by local custom. The junta airstrike occurred as the ceremony was ending. “We saw fallen palms and other trees blown down, damaged houses, and bodies scattered around within a 100-foot radius. The bodies were not quite on top of each other, but lying close together, around two or three feet apart,” Htay said. “There were some groups of four or five bodies clustered together,” he added, recalling the scene he witnessed 15 minutes after the attack. “Many had been blown to pieces by the blasts.” The victims seen after the airstrike (SRF) Locals held a mass funeral for the deceased on Monday evening. Soon after the airstrike, junta ground forces stationed across the Chindwin River fired on the village using heavy artillery, locals said. This made it difficult to retrieve bodies or rescue injured survivors in the aftermath, they said, and endangered Mataw residents who had fled from their homes to the nearby forest during the airstrike. The town of Mingin, located on the southwest bank of the Chindwin River, is still controlled by the junta. The surrounding township is a divided territory, with some villages serving as strongholds for anti-junta armed resistance forces and others dominated by the junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militia forces. Mataw, a large village of over 100 households, is located across the Chindwin River from Mingin on the northeast bank. Mataw village’s location on the Chindwin River (Google) Users on pro-junta propaganda Telegram channels posted claims that the gathering targeted by the junta air force was a resistance fighter’s wedding, and that many had been killed in the attack. Local resistance members also said the bride was affiliated with the township’s defence team. Initial reports said the groom had been killed in the airstrike, but further investigation indicated that both the bride and groom were unharmed. Since seizing power in 2021, the Myanmar military has increasingly relied on airstrikes to maximise its tactical advantage over anti-junta groups, and has repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks on large crowds. The attack on Mataw comes less than a month after an air force attack, targeting PAT members gathered at a monastery, killed 15 people in Akyi Pan Pa Lun village, Saw Township in the Yaw area of Magway Region. Less than a week later, another airstrike in Taw Ma village in the same township killed seven people.

Dozens of deaths confirmed in Myanmar air force’s attack on Sagaing Region wedding

After local news initially reported at least seven deaths in a junta airstrike, rescue workers counted 28 people killed but said the bodies were damaged and difficult to identify with certainty

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