Three killed in Sagaing Region amid junta counteroffensive operations

Airstrikes, paramotor attacks, and shelling by regime forces killed three civilians in Budalin Township, Sagaing Region on Tuesday, according to local and armed resistance sources. Members of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) active in the area said the artillery fire came from the army’s Northwestern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters in Monywa, the capital of Sagaing Region, some 20 miles to the south. The shelling, airstrikes, and paramotor attacks—carried out using manned, propelled paragliders as a form of light airborne craft—targeted villages on the northeast side of the Chindwin River. A paramotor flew in from the direction of the Northwestern RMC around 3pm before attacking near a segment of road near the Phonegyi intersection between Budalin and Ayadaw, according to local residents and PDF members. The paramotor pilot threw bombs and fired at the ground, according to one resistance fighter, killing a 19-year-old student. Around 5:30pm the same day, junta warplanes carried out an airstrike on the village of Tha Khut Ta Nei on the west side of Budalin Township nearer to the Chindwin, opposite Kani Township. Paramotor attacks on the village followed at 8pm, killing two men around 20 years old. “We can say aerial attacks continued through the entire afternoon today,” the resistance fighter said on Tuesday evening. “The victims included a displaced young woman near the Phonegyi intersection and two men from around Tha Khut Ta Nei, totalling three deaths.” Bombs from the airstrike on Tha Khut Ta Nei, which is around 12 miles northwest of Budalin, landed near a fueling station and damaged some nearby buildings. The attack appeared to be unprovoked, occurring in an area with no nearby resistance and no recent battles, according to a PDF unit commander. "They just kept dropping bombs on the fuel distribution area,” said a member of the resistance-affiliated Budalin Township People’s Administration Team. “Two men who had come to make payments were hit and died on the spot, while others sustained injuries.” Villagers on the west side of the township said the artillery fire from Monywa continued into the late evening. “There were 11 volleys of artillery fired from the Northwestern Command,” one local man said. A column of about 100 army troops from the Northwestern Command has been advancing through Budalin Township since the middle of the month while military authorities have been collecting names for voter registries in the town in preparation for scheduled elections in December. On Tuesday around 7pm, local resistance forces clashed with junta troops near Tet Hlaing village and at the exit of Pe Pyitt Taw village (east), three miles north of Budalin. Afterwards, the junta troops withdrew to the town through Pe Pyit Taw, according to a Budalin Township resident. Seven army personnel were reportedly killed in the clash, and the resistance forces managed to seize two rifles. On Wednesday morning, junta forces were reported to have set fires in Zee Taw village about eight miles south of Budalin, according to the same township resident. The military, which has committed brutal killings in Budalin Township in the past, has launched its present counteroffensive operations after months of absence from the rural areas outside the town. An army column of nearly 80 troops was ambushed in the township in September 2024 by resistance forces, who took dozens of soldiers as prisoners of war. The junta retaliated the next month by sending a column of over 100 troops into villages outside of Budalin, where they committed arson attacks and captured, brutalised, and killed civilians. The human rights ministry of the publicly-mandated National Unity Government (NUG) later reported that at least 24 civilians, including children and elderly people, were killed during those attacks.

Three killed in Sagaing Region amid junta counteroffensive operations

The attacks on Budalin Township, Sagaing Region—which included airstrikes, artillery barrages, and paramotor strikes—were part of a broader counteroffensive campaign by the military regime to recover territory lost to resistance forces

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