Seven resistance members killed by Myanmar junta airstrike in Magway Region

The Myanmar air force bombed a village school in Magway Region on May 5, killing at least seven members of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and other resistance groups, according to local sources. The armed resistance members were sheltering in the school, located in Pakokku Township’s Saung Kyan Kone village, at around 8pm when the airstrike occurred. The victims, aged between 26 and 30, included three members of local defence teams as well as four members of the Pauk Township PDF under the direct command of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG), according to a Pauk Township resident close to the resistance forces. Six of the fighters reportedly died instantly. The airstrike also injured four fighters, one of whom died of his injuries after two days. “The injuries suggest the victims were hit from behind while washing themselves. Many of the fighters there were from our township,” the resident said, referring to Pauk Township, Magway Region. “Some had the backs of their skulls shattered, with shrapnel damaging nerves in their necks.” While some sources claimed as many as nine people died in the airstrike, Myanmar Now was able to confirm only seven fatalities.After bombing Saung Kyan Kone, the junta aircraft also reportedly targeted the nearby New Oh Yin village, but the bombing caused minimal damage and no casualties, according to locals. The resistance fighters chose the school as a place to regroup despite the prevailing norm of avoiding the use of schools, hospitals, and religious sites that are common junta targets, according to local resistance sources. Saung Kyan Kone, a village of around 80 households, is some 19 miles west of Pakokku on the road between Oh Yin, Myaing Township and Kan Ma, Yenangyaung Township. Resistance forces have reportedly been gathering in the area to intercept a junta infantry advance through Myaing and Pakokku townships. An injured resistance member (Photo: Supplied) Two junta columns of more than 100 troops each from the Light Infantry Battalion 101 base in Pakokku Town have been moving through the area since late April, local sources said. When the first reached Myaing Township in early May, the resistance blockaded the road and attempted to head off the junta troops, leading to intense clashes and airstrikes. Local resistance forces, who were planning their own response while the second column remained in neighbouring Pakokku Township, were at a rendez-vous at the Saung Kyan Kone village school when the airstrike occurred. “While most of the groups were preoccupied with fighting the first junta column in Myaing Township, the junta aircraft attacked the fighters waiting to intercept the second column,” a resistance member based in Pakokku Township said. The first column, unable to continue its advance, withdrew from Myaing Township and returned to Pakokku two days after the airstrike occurred, followed the next day by the second column. Before retreating, junta troops set fire to the Lay Tan village monastery, where they had been stationed temporarily, as well as more than 30 houses on two other villages in Myaing Township, locals said. The military controls the urban areas of Myaing and has established pro-regime, Pyu Saw Htee militias in several villages in the township. The resistance controls most rural areas elsewhere in Myaing Township. Lay Tan village monastery in southeastern Myaing Township burning after junta soldiers set fire to it on May 5 (Photo: Anyar Myae Civil Society Group [Myaing] Television)

Seven resistance members killed by Myanmar junta airstrike in Magway Region

Military aircraft bombed a school that the resistance fighters had chosen as a rendez-vous point while preparing to repel an infantry advance towards Myaing and Pakokku

Subscribe for full access

Sent to die: Myanmar’s conscripts caught between a junta’s war and a nation’s collapse

Magway emerges as key front in junta’s strategy to claw back control of western Myanmar

Beyond the iron bars: Into a broader world of confinement

Burned, beaten, and hunted: Myanmar worker survives alleged torture in Thailand

Subscribe for full access

Related Articles

Resistance forces pushed back as Myanmar military advances south of Indaw

Myanmar military seeks to reopen Chin State airport after retaking Falam, raising resistance concerns

Myanmar junta expands crackdown to Aung San statues in bid to erase opposition symbols

Rohingya civilians injured, POWs killed by Myanmar junta airstrikes near Bangladesh border