Junta bombs Kyauktaw for three consecutive days, killing seven civilians

By Admin 03 Nov 2026

DMG Newsroom

3 November 2026, Kyauktaw

Civilian casualties in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, continue to mount as the military junta carries out three consecutive days of aerial bombardments targeting villages and former military outposts.

Junta aircraft launched repeated day-and-night airstrikes from November 1 to November 3, bombing the Yoe Creek Bridge, Wa Taung Village, U Soon Taung Village and former military bases previously occupied by Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 539 and Artillery Battalion 377.

The three-day bombardment killed seven civilians and injured at least 11 others.

On November 1, junta airstrikes hit the Yoe Creek Bridge connecting Wa Taung and Panphechaung villages along the Sittwe–Yangon Road, destroying the bridge structure, damaging nearby market stalls and causing civilian casualties.

The seven fatalities included two 7-year-old Grade 2 students from Wa Taung Village, local vendors, commuters and drivers crossing the bridge. Around 10 other people were injured.

"When I checked on my daughter, she was gasping for air," Daw Than Than, the mother of 7-year-old victim Ma Myat Thuzar Tun, told DMG. "She did not even make it to the hospital and passed away on the way. I had to witness her lying there with severe head wounds and bleeding."

"My daughter was completely innocent," Daw Than Than added. "If armed groups have a conflict, they should fight each other without harming non-combatant civilians. I feel the exact same pain for my daughter as I do for all the other victims."

Ma Myat Thuzar Tun and her friend, Ma Aye Nyein San, were playing near a local shop by the Wahtaung bus terminal and Yoe Creek Bridge when they were struck and killed by bomb shrapnel.

Grieving family members said Wa Taung Village has no military infrastructure and that the junta had deliberately targeted civilians.

Daw Than Than urged international organizations to take decisive action against the military junta for bombing and killing innocent children.

Of the 10 civilians injured in the attack in Wa Taung Village, a man and a woman suffered severe injuries and remain in critical, life-threatening condition.

The fatalities also included 37-year-old Ma Oo San Wai, who had been supporting her two younger sisters on her own by selling fried snacks at the bus terminal.

"My heart is broken," Daw Kyi Kyi Myint, Ma Oo San Wai's mother-in-law, said. "She never experienced good fortune in her life. She was orphaned at a young age and raised her two younger sisters on her own. Those children have no parents left, and they were struggling to survive through hard labor."

Later that night, junta aircraft returned to bomb former outposts of LIB 539 and Artillery Battalion 377, located north of Wa Taung Village.

In the early hours of November 3, junta aircraft bombed a monastery in U Soon Taung Village and areas near Myarlikan Village, injuring the presiding abbot.

Across the first three days of November, junta airstrikes in Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Werathani and Kyaukphyu townships killed 14 civilians and injured 38 others.

Local residents called on military forces to refrain from attacking civilians, emphasizing that the armed conflict does not involve non-combatant populations.

"The fighting should remain strictly between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army," U Maung Saw Hlaing, a Wa Taung resident, said. "It has nothing to do with civilians. We demand that the Myanmar military cease these unjust acts of torture, aerial bombings, and killings against innocent people."

The military regime has increasingly resorted to aerial bombardments against towns controlled by the Arakan Army and nearby villages as its ground forces suffer ongoing setbacks on active battlefronts in Sittwe and Kyaukphyu.

Data compiled by DMG researchers shows that junta airstrikes across Arakan State during the first 10 months of 2026 killed 209 civilians and injured 421 others.