At least 21 people, including three pregnant women, were killed Thursday when junta warplanes bombed eastern Mogok, a ruby-mining town in Mandalay Region controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), local sources said.
The attack, which struck a residential area near a monastery around 8:30 pm, killed at least 16 women and five men and left five others wounded, according to local sources.
“We found nine bodies last night and ten more this morning,” a source close to the TNLA said. “Two of the five injured also died this morning, bringing the total death toll to 21.”
A pregnant woman was with her family and attendants when a bomb struck the area before a doctor could reach her.
“One of the pregnant women was about to give birth when the bomb struck,” a man from Mogok who went to the bombing site this morning told Myanmar Now.
“Some of the bodies have been recovered, but others were torn into pieces and have not yet been fully retrieved.”
The bomb struck a hillside near a monastery in eastern Mogok, an area largely inhabited by civilians, according to local sources.
Sources added that the hillside is difficult to access and home only to civilians. Search teams recovered six bodies within 20 minutes of the attack and another five the following morning, while seven people remain unaccounted for.
The death toll reached 21 after resistance forces continued to clear the site hit by the junta aerial assault this morning. According to locals on the ground, at least five men sustained injuries.
In recent months, the junta has intensified airstrikes in Mogok Township after the TNLA refused to cede control of five towns, including Mogok, during Chinese-brokered negotiations. The TNLA seized Mogok in mid-2024 as part of the second phase of Operation 1027, a major offensive by ethnic armed groups against the military regime.
After regaining control of Nawnghkio in northern Shan State in early July, the military regime deployed troops to retake the town of Mogok, advancing from the Nawnghkio-Mogok route.
Pro-junta telegram channels claimed that at least three villages along the route have been captured by junta troops since July.
On August 9, a junta warplane carried out a bombing in Mogok’s Kyauk Na Ga village, targeting a monastery, killing at least five people including two children. Four others, including a monk, sustained injuries in the attack. The TNLA estimates that at least 30 people were killed and 50 others were injured throughout Mogok between July and August 14.
