23 April 2026 By Hsu Yee
LETPADAN, Myanmar — At least four young men have been killed after the Myanmar military launched a heavy aerial bombardment on a small fishing community in western Bago Region, an area where resistance groups claim there was no active fighting.
The attack occurred on Wednesday morning near the Thekae Dam in Letpadan Township. Two junta fighter jets reportedly dropped at least ten bombs on Won Kalay (Sar Chaung) village, specifically targeting a group of residents who make their living through small-scale fishing.
The victims, identified as young men aged 15, 16, 19, and 20, were struck by shrapnel and died instantly at the scene. According to the Letpadan People’s Defence Team (Pa-Ka-Fa), the strike appeared to be a deliberate attack on civilians.
“The people living there are just basic fishermen. They don’t even have large motorboats; they just catch small fish and frogs to survive,” a local resistance fighter told MPA. “There were no battles in this area, and no revolutionary forces were stationed nearby. It was an unprovoked assault.”
In addition to the four fatalities, six others were injured in the strike. Two of the wounded—a man and a woman—are reported to be in critical condition, while two children and two other adults sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Three residential homes were completely destroyed in the barrage.
The local Pa-Ka-Fa has issued an urgent warning to residents in the region, advising them to remain on high alert for further aerial threats. The group described the incident as part of an increasing trend of “excessive and intentional” airstrikes against non-combatant populations across the country.
Independent analysts suggest that as the Myanmar military loses ground on various land fronts, it is increasingly turning to its air force to terrorise civilian populations in “stable” zones to discourage support for the resistance.
Bago Region, situated between the commercial capital Yangon and the central plains, has seen a spike in such incidents over the past year. For the families in Won Kalay village, the sudden violence has shattered the relative peace of their rural community, proving once again that in Myanmar’s widening civil war, there is no longer such a thing as a safe zone.
