Junta airstrike hits monastery shelter in Sagaing, killing father and son

An airstrike hit a monastery sheltering civilians in central Myanmar’s Sagaing Region early Tuesday, killing at least two people and wounding four others, residents and resistance sources said. Shortly after 5am on February 4, a junta paramotor from the Monywa-based Northwestern Command struck a monastery in Thet Kei Kyin village, just over a mile southeast of Monywa Town. “The aerial strike hit a monastery where displaced civilians were taking refuge,” an officer from the resistance Monywa Revolution (MR) told Myanmar Now. “The military junta is clearly aiming to kill civilians en masse. This is a grave war crime.”The strike killed a man in his 50s and his 18-year-old son on the spot and wounded at least four others, sources said, adding that the monastery was being used as a shelter by displaced villagers whose homes had been burned in earlier junta offensives. “Many homes in Thet Kei Kyin village have been set on fire over the past year and a half, leaving residents displaced for an extended period,” the officer said. Between 7pm and midnight on February 3, the junta launched airstrikes on Kani Township in Sagaing Region. At approximately 7:20pm, two junta fighter jets carried out four airstrikes in the southwestern part of Kani Township, followed by strikes from two paramotors around 8:30pm, and three more near 11:30pm, targeting the surrounding areas. “We have received preliminary reports that the nighttime airstrikes hit forest areas, but the details are still being investigated,” a resistance fighter from Yimarbin District said. Over the last few months, the junta has carried out repeated attacks. In January alone, airstrikes across 22 townships killed dozens of people and injured over 100. A statement from the civil society group Fortify Rights on January 29 noted that the junta junta mainly uses paramotors and gyrocopters in attacks across central Myanmar—including Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay, Ayeyarwaddy, and Bago—where low-altitude flights are easier. These aircraft are also sometimes used in Rakhine State, the group said. These two aircraft are mostly deployed in areas with little resistance force presence, often causing civilian casualties.

Junta airstrike hits monastery shelter in Sagaing, killing father and son

At least two civilians were killed and four others wounded when a paramotor attack struck a monastery sheltering displaced villagers near Monywa, resistance sources said

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