Military airstrikes targeting a village in western Sagaing Region’s Mingin Township killed seven civilians, including three children, and injured another 10 late last week, according to sources.
The incident occurred on May 4, when regime aircraft dropped three bombs on the village of Peik Ka Yar, about 20km west of the town of Mingin, at around 2pm, a local man told Myanmar Now.
“They dropped three 500-pound bombs at the edge of the village, just west of the school and south of the football field,” he said, adding that the bombs also destroyed around 20 houses and killed several cows.
Two elderly women were killed immediately, along with the 3-year-old grandchild of one of the women. Two other adults and two children, aged three and five, died of their injuries while awaiting treatment, according to the man, who did not want to be identified.
Among the 10 people who were reported injured was an 8-year-old child whose leg was torn apart below the knee, he added.
“So many people were hit during the first attack,” said the man, noting that the victims’ injuries suggested that most had been hit by shrapnel from the bombs, rather than by machine-gun fire, which is often deployed by regime forces during air raids.
“I can still hear the sound of their wailing,” said the man, who arrived in the village about half an hour after the attack to assist the victims.
Peik Ka Yar is a small farming village of only around 120 households. It was unclear why it was targeted, but it is located in the Taung Dwin Chaung area of Mingin Township, which is regarded as a resistance stronghold.
Residents of the area said the village suffered heavy casualties because the attack occurred without warning.
Last month, a junta aerial assault killed at least 170 people, including dozens of children, in the village of Pa Zi Gyi in Sagaing’s Kanbalu Township.
It was the single-worst attack on civilians since the military seized power in a coup more than two years ago.
