Five killed in midnight airstrike on village in Magway Region’s Myaing Township

The Myanmar air force conducted an aerial attack soon not long after midnight on Thursday, killing five villagers and injuring more than a dozen in Myaing Township, Magway Region, local sources said. A bomb dropped by a junta aircraft struck the centre of Myaing Township’s Kan Gyi village at 12:11am, killing three children and two other civilians, according to a resistance fighter based in the township, as well as extensively damaging around 15 homes. “There had been no fighting. They dropped bombs without provocation, coming from Shante Air Base, and struck the village centre,” the resistance fighter said. “The destruction was extensive.” Myanmar Now has yet to confirm details about the slain and injured villagers, including the exact number and their ages and genders. Six of the injured are reportedly in critical condition. The attack resulted in a high casualty count because it caught the villagers unawares, he added, at an hour when civilians were sleeping in their homes rather than taking cover in shelters. The villagers were aware that most of the district’s ground troops had recently been manoeuvring through neighbouring Pauk Township, another part of their district, and believed they were safe from potential fighting or aggression, said Sayar Htwe, a member of the Anyar Myay civil society group. “The residents, exhausted from recent sleepless nights, were sound asleep when the fighter jet dropped bombs without warning,” he said. Following the midnight airstrike, the military also reportedly carried out a paramotor strike on the village the following morning around 10am, but it remains unclear what injuries or damage it caused. Civilians’ homes damaged in the airstrikes (Photo: Anyar Myay Civil Society Group) Since early November, junta forces have repeatedly raided and carried out airstrikes in resistance-held areas of Pauk and Myaing townships near the town of Pakokku, where the Myanmar military regime plans to hold elections within the next two months. At least four columns of junta troops have been active recently in that area, which is home to the military’s Directorate of Defence Industries (DI) No. 24 armaments factory. According to the Pauk Township Humanitarian and Disaster Management Department (HDMD)—which operates as part of the publicly mandated, anti-junta National Unity Government (NUG)—these junta troop units have been forcing local villagers to serve them as guides, as well as torching homes and sometimes killing civilians. Resistance forces recently reported that one junta troop column based at the DI No. 24 factory had joined forces with another based in Myaing Township near an oil field in Pauk Township, but the soldiers’ plans and intent remain unclear. “Because they’re now close to the oil field, we’ve been monitoring them in real time to see if they will move towards it,” Sayar Htwe said. “The situation suggests they are headed that way. They’re in a village that lies on the edge of the petroleum zone, so we believe they aim to destroy the oil field.” According to the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights, the junta carried out more than 250 airstrikes in the country in October alone, killing some 185 people—including 38 minors—and injuring more than 500.

Five killed in midnight airstrike on village in Magway Region’s Myaing Township

There were reportedly children among the fatalities from an unprovoked junta air raid, which locals were not expecting after a period of calm in the area

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