Myanmar air force bombs Sadung, Kachin State, killing eight including children

Amid an ongoing counteroffensive by junta forces in Kachin State, an airstrike killed two children and six other civilians in Sadung Township on Monday afternoon, according to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and local sources. Fighter jets sent from the state capital of Myitkyina—some 30 miles west of Sadung—attacked near a marketplace and school at around 2:30pm that day, causing extensive damage to houses and buildings as well as civilian casualties, KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu told Myanmar Now. “They said two jet fighters dropped bombs in two places. The bomb that fell in the market area hit vendors and shoppers, and since it was around the time classes were ending, children were also injured,” the KIA spokesperson said. The KIA confirmed that two children on their way from school were among the eight local people killed in the air raid, and that six other civilians had sustained injuries, but the number of casualties was still being tallied at time of reporting and the death toll was likely to rise, according to local sources. “There are still more,” a Sadung resident said, referring to the number of people killed. “There are many people’s remains in the ruins of houses and body parts all strewn in pieces everywhere.” Satellite image and map showing the location of the airstrike on Monday Photos and video clips circulating on social media show the bodies of two children who appear to be under 10 years old, one dismembered body, and various damaged houses and buildings. Located some 25 miles west of the town of Kanpaikti, Waingmaw Township on the China-Myanmar border, Sadung is a sub-township with a population just over 10,000 as of Myanmar’s 2014 census, the last countrywide population survey conducted in the country. Until last year, the town of Sadung was controlled by the Kachin Border Guard Force, a militia collaborating with the Myanmar military, most of whose fighters were led by the warlord Zakhung Ting Ying. The KIA and its allies took control of Kanpaikti and Sadung as part of an anti-junta offensive that began in March of last year, during which the anti-junta forces captured more than a dozen towns. According to a Sadung resident, there was no recent fighting on the ground in or near Sadung, and the junta’s airstrike was unprovoked. “For the sake of the elections, they’re bombing remote areas they can’t reach, then forcing people to flee into towns, sacrificing human lives just to get votes,” he said, referring to the Myanmar military regime’s plans to hold elections starting this December. Confirming that there had been no clashes in the area, Col. Naw Bu accused the junta of committing war crimes. “On the military council’s side, they don’t distinguish between their enemies and civilians at all,” he said. “In our territory, they just launched airstrikes indiscriminately, bombing markets and monasteries. This is straightforwardly a war crime.” The military carried out previous airstrikes in the village of Lan Se in Kachin State’s Tsawlaw Township last week, but it is unclear whether there were any casualties. Clashes between the junta and KIA-led forces are also ongoing elsewhere in the state, including Bhamo Township and other parts of Waingmaw Township. During the elections the junta has been planning for the end of the year, regime officials have acknowledged that it will not be possible to hold polls in some jurisdictions of Kachin State such as Chipwe, Injangyang, Sumprabum, and Tsawlaw townships due to the continued presence of anti-junta groups. The junta has publicly stated plans to hold elections in the towns of Mansi, Momauk, and Sadung although they are all under the control of the KIA or other anti-junta fighters. The military has been conducting a countrywide counteroffensive in Myanmar, strengthened by fresh batches of soldiers conscripted under the mandatory military service law that the regime revived in 2024. However, it has so far managed to recover only a fraction of the territory lost to the KIA and its allies. Elsewhere, especially in its counteroffensive campaign targeting the Arakan Army and resistance forces in central Myanmar, the military regime has escalated attacks using aircraft, unmanned drones, and piloted paramotors. Most of the casualties from these aerial strikes tend to be civilians.

Myanmar air force bombs Sadung, Kachin State, killing eight including children

Locals said that the airstrike on Sadung, a small settlement between the Kachin State capital and border town of Kanpaikti, was not a response to any recent fighting and was entirely unprovoked

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