More than 100 civilians were killed by junta airstrikes this month in territories lost by the regime during March, according to The Irrawaddy’s estimates.
The Irrawaddy recorded 40 fatalities in Letpanhla village, Singu Township, Mandalay Region, eight in Myaung and Kani townships in Sagaing Region, 55 in Myaing, Pauk, Htilin and Gangaw townships in Magwe Region, and 10 in Nawnghkio Township in northern Shan State.
A military observer said: “The regime has been targeting civilians as it can’t win land battles. The reasoning is that they have lost territory because people support anti-regime groups, so they attack to scare people. Airstrikes regularly target areas with no fighting.”
Eleven civilians, including a doctor, his nurse wife who was four months pregnant and their five-year-old son were killed in a junta airstrike on Hnan Khar village in northern Gangaw Township, Magwe Region, on March 22.
Five children were killed and six people were injured in the bombing raid, which targeted Dr Mya Soe Aung’s clinic. The 40-year-old doctor and his wife, Khaing Hnin Wai, a 39-year-old senior nurse, were killed. The couple served at a public hospital in Kale Township, Sagaing Region, before joining the Civil Disobedience Movement following the 2021 coup. They had since provided healthcare to people affected by fighting in Sagaing and Magwe regions.
A military defector, former sergeant Zeya, said: “The military has been committing extreme acts of brutality since the beginning. They say, ‘There is no injustice within the military.’ To win the war, they bomb hospitals and religious sites without hesitation. These airstrikes are deliberate acts meant to instill fear among the people.”
Forty civilians, including seven children one of whom was four-months old, and more than 50 others were injured in junta air attacks on Letpanhla village, a rest stop on the Mandalay-Mogoke road on March 4, 14 and 17.
Ko Osmond, a spokesman for Mandalay People’s Defence Force (PDF) said: “There have been no ground clashes in Singu since we seized the town. The latest air attack was unprovoked and deliberately targeted civilians.”
Singu, 80km from Mandalay city, fell to the PDF and its allies in July last year.
Ten people, including two monks, five novices, and two women, were killed by four 250lb bombs on Sein Yadanar monastery in Nawnghkio town, which is controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), on March 16, according to the armed group.
The warplane used machine guns to attack the monastery, which was sheltering residents who had fled their homes due to fighting between the TNLA and the junta. Fourteen other monks and four civilians were wounded in the attack, the TNLA said.
A Nawnghkio resident said: “A blue fighter jet flew low over the town, dropping four bombs in two passes. The jet then circled back and machine-gunned Sein Yadanar monastery, targeting monks and displaced people. The brutality of the act is so extreme that no words of condemnation feel adequate.”
Residents dismissed junta claims that TNLA and PDF troops were stationed at the monastery.
More than 30 civilians were killed in junta airstrikes on numerous villages and oil fields on the border of Myaing and Pauk townships in Magwe Region in early March. The air raids have forced oil production to an abrupt halt and thrown residents into panic.
A junta bombing raid on Alelban village in Htilin Township, Magwe Region, on March 20 killed four civilians, including two female students, left more than 20 injured and destroyed more than 40 houses, according to Htilin Township People’s Defence Team.
Five women were killed and four others injured in two junta airstrikes on villages along the Chindwin River in Kani Township, Sagaing Region, on March 10 and 18, according to Kani Township People’s Defence Team.
The regime used paragliders to drop bombs on Myaung town and surrounding villages on March 19, killing four people, and burning some houses, according to the Civil Defence and Security Organization in Myaung.
The Human Rights Ministry of the civilian National Unity Government records indicate that the regime carried out 2,109 air raids from 2023 to March 16 this year, killing 372 children.
According to independent research group Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica, the regime carried out 865 bombing raids in four months from September to December last year—an average of seven per day—killing 475 civilians and wounding 1,013 others.
