Three individuals, including a retired lieutenant colonel, were shot dead in Yangon’s Thanlyin Township at around noon on Tuesday, according to sources close to the victims.
The ex-lieutenant colonel was 48-year-old Aung Nyi Tun, while the other two men were identified as Aung Myo Swe, 53, and Khin Maung Thein, 58.
The younger brother of the slain ex-army officer is an in-service officer in Myanmar’s air force named Kyaw Zwar Tun, sources said. A police source in Yangon told Myanmar Now that he had been the assailants’ intended target, and described the attack as a case of mistaken identity.
The reason for the killings was still unknown at the time of reporting. No anti-regime resistance group has claimed responsibility. However, in the aftermath of a recent deadly airstrike by the Myanmar military which killed more than 170 people, including dozens of children, there have been calls on social media platforms for retaliatory attacks against officers in the junta’s air force.
A 23-year-old relative of Aung Myo Swe claimed that the victims were mistakenly targeted in the assassination and that they were not involved in politics.
He said that the three victims were related to each other—Aung Nyi Tun is the nephew of Khin Maung Thein and brother-in-law of Aung Myo Swe—and lived in the same compound.
He said that the gunmen shot at them when they were in front of their houses at around 11am.
“The old men were talking to each other like they always did and a man arrived and shot several rounds at them and ran away,” he told Myanmar Now.
The relative added that he was in the compound when the shooting took place but didn’t see the gunman’s face.
“I heard gunfire and went to see what happened and saw them at the scene,” he said.
Following the shooting, junta soldiers sealed off Thanlyin to track down the assailants, according to a local resident.
Aung Nyi Tun retired from the army due to health reasons seven years ago and had two children aged 22 and 15, while Aung Myo Swe was survived by two sons, including a 14-year-old, he said.
“Even though we are a family with military backgrounds, we are not hardcore supporters and we don’t give information [to the army],” said the relative of Aung Myo Swe.
Myanmar Now is unable to verify his claims independently.
Suspected junta informants and others with ties to the military have been frequent targets of attack since the regime seized power in February 2021.
Thanlyin, located on the Bago River opposite Yangon, is a port city where many retired military officials reside. Last month, 56-year-old corporate lawyer Min Tayza Nyunt Tin, who was accused of helping Myanmar’s military leaders to launder money, was also shot and killed there by gunmen.
