Three killed in airstrike in Sagaing Region’s Kawlin Township

Junta airstrikes hit villages in eastern Kawlin Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday, killing three people according to township residents. At around 6am, a Y-12 transport aircraft dropped bombs on Khan Thar, Swei Ya, and villages lying along the Shwebo-Myitkyina road. Locals said one of the bombs killed a family of three when it hit a house in Swei Ya. Myanmar Now has yet to confirm details such as the age or gender of the victims. A district-level town, Kawlin was captured by the People’s Defence Forces—the armed wing of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG)—in late 2023 and held for more than three months before regime forces managed to retake it. Even after the recapture, however, resistance forces continued to control the villages and countryside surrounding Kawlin. The junta reportedly carried out Thursday’s airstrike on Swei Ya and Khan Thar lie about 30 miles east of Kawlin. “There was no fighting. They dropped bombs for no reason, now even targeting the village centre or market,” a township resident said. The use of a Y-12 aircraft for the airstrike differed from the military’s previous aerial attacks in the Kawlin area, which were typically carried out by fighter planes. “A fighter jet would usually drop just two bombs and then retreat, so we could count them. But this morning, the Y-12 seemed to bomb incessantly,” he added. “These planes can carry a massive payload, and the sound alone causes panic.” Junta forces also carried out an airstrike in the village of Doe Pin on the Shwebo-Myitkyina road last month, injuring four people and setting two vehicles on fire when it hit a food stall operated by displaced people sheltering in the village. The Myanmar military has also resumed ground operations in the area at the end of July. “We keep our devices on to monitor where the aircraft are. Whenever a plane shows up we have to stay alert and escape from our homes to the valley, a shelter, or any place we think is safe,” another Kawlin resident said. “But of course if a bomb falls directly on us or near us, there’s nothing we can do. It’s simply our fate.” Over a two-week period from August 1 to 14, at least 51 airstrikes struck civilian areas in 10 of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions, killing 86 people and injuring 167, according to NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt. Damage in Nyaung Kone village, Kawlin Township, after an April 2025 airstrike (Photo: Kawlin Info)

Three killed in airstrike in Sagaing Region’s Kawlin Township

A family of three died in the bombing of the Sagaing Region town, which resistance forces once captured and held for several months nearly three years after the military coup

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