Junta airstrikes kill at least 12 across central Myanmar

At least 12 civilians, including children, were killed and more than a dozen others wounded in a wave of junta airstrikes across Sagaing and Mandalay regions since Sunday, including three attacks carried out by gyrocopters, according to local sources. Three people were killed and 11 others injured in separate paramotor strikes on three villages in Chaung-U and neighboring Monywa townships on Monday, according to local resistance fighters. “A 16-year-old girl died in Chaung Ma Nar and a 75-year-old man died in Chaung Son,” a spokesperson from the Township People’s Defense Team said. “Six men, a woman and three others including a three-year-old child who were not locals also sustained injuries in Chaung Ma Nar.” A junta gyrocopter strike around 2:59pm, wounded a 55-year-old woman, while additional aerial attacks targeted nearby civilian areas across multiple villages. “At least five bombs struck the base just outside the village, and four more hit inside,” a resistance fighter from Chaung U Township told Myanmar Now. “A fighter who was guarding a post near the base was killed as he tried to take cover from the attack. He was struck in the head by shrapnel. Some speculate the attack was directed at a resistance base positioned near Wa Ywar village, a village not far from pro-junta militias.More than 5,000 people have been displaced in Chaung-U Township after the military sent in two reinforcement units from Monywa, prompting raids across the area. Dozens of villages have emptied out, and new troop arrivals by river on Monday forced thousands more to flee.Displaced residents sheltering in monasteries said they are facing food shortages and urgently need humanitarian aid.The junta has increasingly relied on paramotors and gyrocopters in recent months, using them for low-flying bomb drops and reconnaissance in areas where resistance forces have denied the military ground access. Previous paramotor strikes in Sagaing and Magway have killed and injured civilians, drawing concern from local monitors who warn the aircraft allow the regime to hit targets with little warning. “Two women who recently gave birth, along with three elderly men and a woman, have fallen ill as temperatures drop,” a displaced woman from Chaung U said. “Many of us are day laborers and we cannot survive without humanitarian aid. We also lack sufficient blankets and mosquito nets.” The latest airstrikes in Sagaing Region on Tuesday killed at least five people, including a two-year-old girl, and wounded several others in Wetlet Township, according to local sources. Bombs hit civilian homes in a village east of Wetlet Town, a junta-controlled urban centre, local monitors reported. “The junta warplane dropped two bombs at a time,” said a Wetlet Information Network representative, a local group based in Wetlet that shares information and news on Facebook.“The victims were all from the same family.” The deceased were identified as a 25-year-old man, his 24-year-old wife, their two-year-old daughter, and two other men in their 20s and 40s.Two days earlier, a junta aerial assault killed at least four people including a child and injured six others when junta warplanes dropped bombs on a residential ward in Ta Gaung, a town under the control of resistance forces in Mandalay Region’s Thabeikkyin Township. Local sources said no fighting was taking place in the area at the time of the strikes. Wetlet lies roughly 30 miles from the junta’s No. 13 Military Training School in Thabeikkyin Township, where heavy clashes with resistance forces have continued in recent days. Thabeikkyin, which resistance forces seized in August 2024, was recaptured by the junta in July this year. The town is now back under regime control, though much of the surrounding township remains contested by anti-junta forces.

Junta airstrikes kill at least 12 across central Myanmar

Low-flying gyrocopter raids hit villages in Sagaing and Mandalay, forcing mass displacement and killing children and entire families

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