By Hsu Yee/MPA
An airstrike by the Myanmar military has killed eight civilians, including an infant boy and a teenage girl, in a night-time raid on a village in the Sagaing Region.
Two 500lb bombs were dropped by a fighter jet on Lay Bo village, near the town of Mawlu in Indaw Township, at approximately 21:00 local time on Thursday (29 January).
According to Indaw Revolution (IR), a local resistance group, the strike directly hit a home in the centre of the village. Seven members of a single family were killed in the blast. Among the victims were a six-month-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. A female neighbour was also killed.
Local sources told MPA that the victims appeared to have been taking shelter inside the wooden house when the bombs fell.
“One bomb landed in the front yard and another at the back,” an official from Indaw Revolution said. “We recovered the bodies of four males and four females. It seems they didn’t have a bomb shelter dug, or couldn’t get to one. They were found huddled under a bed.”
The official added that the neighbour who was killed had reportedly been unable to fit into a nearby shelter and was caught in the open.
While there were no reported injuries among the survivors, the psychological impact has been severe. Two homes were destroyed, and fearing further night raids, many residents of the small village have begun to flee their homes.
This deadly incident follows a similar attack just days earlier. On 21 January, a military airstrike on nearby Man Hae village in Mawlu Township killed five members of a local defence force and injured two civilians.
The military junta has increasingly relied on air power to combat resistance forces, frequently resulting in significant civilian casualties.
