Myanmar military kills six in paramotor attack on village near Magway-Rakhine border

Six people, including four children, were killed and at least five others injured when junta forces bombed a village at the foothills of the Rakhine Yoma mountain range in Magway Region’s Mindon Township on Sunday, local resistance groups said. The attack on Zunkya, a village about 20 miles south of the town of Mindon, was carried out by three paramotors launched from Defence Industry Factory 12 in nearby Thayet at about 4:30pm, the sources said, adding that eight bombs were dropped on two rows of houses in front of the village monastery. Four of those killed were children under the age of 17, while another victim was a man in his 70s. Four children and a 23-year-old woman were injured and remained unable to obtain medical treatment, according to the groups. Zunkya has nearly 30 households, most of whose residents work as loggers in the surrounding forest. Most of the village's men were away working when the attack occurred, leaving mainly women, children, and elderly people at home. Myat, an information officer with Thayet District People’s Defence Force Battalion 4, said there had been no fighting or known presence of resistance forces in the village when it was attacked. “When the paramotors came, the locals probably didn’t think they were the target. There was no reason to think so, as there had been no ground fighting or resistance groups coming and going in the area,” he said. A fragment of one of the eight bombs dropped on Zunkya on September 13 (Photo: Thayet District PDF Battalion 4) He said the victims could not be buried until Wednesday because residents had fled into the surrounding forest. Regime forces also fired heavy artillery into the village and nearby areas six times during the funerals, he added. Myanmar Now repeatedly contacted San Nyunt Aung, the junta's spokesperson for Magway Region, for comment but received no response. The attack came as junta forces have intensified offensives in Mindon Township in an effort to advance toward Rakhine State through the Rakhine Yoma, according to local resistance groups. In March, the regime carried out an airstrike on a truck stop in Pyaung, another village in Mindon Township, killing 25 people and injuring about 20 others. Myat said thousands of junta troops had advanced west from Pyaung toward the Rakhine Yoma, using artillery, airstrikes, and drones during recent clashes with resistance forces. The junta has also been conducting offensives toward Kanpetlet and Mindat in neighbouring Chin State through Magway’s Yaw region. The Tamar Institute of Development, which monitors rights violations in Magway Region, said junta forces carried out nearly 200 aerial attacks using fighter jets, drones, and paramotors across 12 townships in August. The attacks, along with artillery fire and arson, destroyed about 800 homes, it said. Last month, United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar released a report detailing the impact of the junta’s escalating use of paramotors and other small aircraft in its ongoing offensives since the beginning of this year. “The military’s increasing reliance on paramotors and drones has made attacks harder for civilians to detect, limiting their ability to flee or seek shelter,” it said.

Myanmar military kills six in paramotor attack on village near Magway-Rakhine border

Four of the dead and most of the injured in the attack were children, according to local resistance sources

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