Myanmar military airstrike on Sagaing monastery kills 14, wounds 20

At about 9 a.m. on Friday, a Myanmar military jet fighter bombed the compound of a Buddhist monastery in Swel Le Oh village, located in Myaung township of the central Sagaing region, roughly 75 km west of Mandalay. The explosion killed 14 people, among them three women, and wounded 20 others. A local resident who asked to remain unnamed confirmed the casualty figures and added that the aircraft dropped two bombs fifteen minutes apart.

The second bomb damaged a house adjacent to the monastery where more than 100 participants were staying for a week-long meditation retreat during Buddhist Lent. Survivors fled to a neighboring community after burying the dead, while the village coped with the loss of a relative of the anonymous witness. The attack follows a series of frequent aerial strikes by the military that have increasingly targeted both armed opposition groups and civilian sites across Myanmar.