
Two women and an infant were killed in an early morning junta airstrike in Sagaing Township on Friday as they fled an incoming troop advancement on the ground, a source in the resistance said.
Yakkha, commander of Battalion 1 of the anti-regime Sagaing District People’s Defence Force (PDF), told Myanmar Now that the victims, whose names were not confirmed, were in their 20s and 60s, and the child was eight months old.
He said that another 15 people were also injured in the attack. It was carried out as the civilians fled from some 50 soldiers disembarking from a military ship that had docked on the Ayeyarwady River near the village of Sintgaing.
A fighter jet fired heavy weapons at the people near the Kan-U monastery in neighbouring Talaing village, which has been raided at least four times since the February 2021 coup.
“The villagers tried to flee on ox-drawn carts and the military fired rockets at them at the entrance to the monastery,” Yakkha said, speculating that the aircraft had flown from Tada-U Airport, more than 30 miles directly south of the location in Mandalay Region.
A Sagaing local told Myanmar Now that fighter jets were also seen flying over the villages of Sintgaing, Talaing, Tut and Moe Gyo at 11am on August 10.
While there were reportedly no clashes between the military and resistance forces in the area at the time of the assault, frequent battles have been breaking out near Talaing in recent months, causing several casualties within the Sagaing District PDF’s Battalions 1 and 3, including deputy and squadron commanders.