Fourteen killed in strike on Myanmar monastery

Elderly Devotees Killed in Double Airstrike on Myanmar Monastery During Buddhist Lent Retreat

Constantvpn.com – A wave of military aircraft struck a monastery complex in central Myanmar on Friday morning, killing fourteen elderly civilians who had gathered for a traditional meditation retreat. The twin bombing runs, carried out roughly ninety minutes apart, turned a quiet religious observance into a scene of mass casualties, according to opposition fighters and a local rescue worker who spoke to journalists on the ground.

The Strike and Its Immediate Aftermath

The first bomb fell at approximately 09:00 local time (02:30 GMT) on the monastery grounds in the village of Chhay Hoe O, situated within Myaung township in the Sagaing region. The location sits roughly 70 kilometres (47 miles) to the west of Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city. A second aircraft returned shortly afterward to deliver another strike while rescue efforts were already underway.

The rescue worker, speaking to BBC Burmese, confirmed that every person killed was elderly and that several monks sustained injuries in the blasts. The site was hit twice, a detail that deepened the toll and complicated any attempt to reach survivors trapped beneath rubble.

“While we were trying to rescue people, the aircraft came to bomb a second time.”

The remark came from a second opposition fighter who had been among those searching for survivors in the minutes following the initial impact. His account underscores how the second pass effectively sealed the fate of those still pinned under debris or unable to flee the compound.

Who Was Killed

Nway Oo Myaung, a pro-democracy rebel operating in the region, provided a breakdown of the dead: eleven men and three women, all aged between fifty and seventy. Five of the victims were residents of one village, while the remaining nine came from a neighbouring township. The gathering had been organised as a meditation retreat coinciding with the start of Buddhist Lent, a period of intensified monastic observance that draws lay devotees to temples across Myanmar for days of silent practice.

“Older people had entered the meditation centres.”

Myaung’s observation highlights a recurring pattern in Myanmar’s ongoing conflict: strikes that fall on sites where the most vulnerable members of the population — the elderly, the infirm, those seeking spiritual solace — are concentrated. Monasteries, long regarded as neutral spaces of worship and learning, have increasingly become sites of civilian loss as the war intensifies.

A War That Has No Quiet Hours

Myanmar has been engulfed in civil war since the military junta seized power in a February 2021 coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Since that coup, the country has operated under martial rule, with the armed forces maintaining tight control over information, movement, and public life. The conflict has drawn in dozens of ethnic armed groups, pro-democracy resistance forces, and local self-defence units, fragmenting the country into zones of varying control.

The military has repeatedly been accused of carrying out airstrikes on public buildings — schools, hospitals, markets, and places of worship — often in areas where no active fighting is taking place. In previous statements, the junta has maintained that it targets only legitimate military objectives. On this occasion, however, no official comment had been issued as of the time of reporting. The absence of a statement, combined with the civilian nature of the victims and the religious character of the site, has drawn sharp criticism from opposition voices and international observers alike.

Buddhist Lent and the Symbolism of the Target

The timing of the strike — during the opening days of Buddhist Lent, known locally as the Vassa period — lends the incident a particular weight. For centuries, the Lent season has marked a time when monks observe stricter discipline and lay followers deepen their practice through meditation, alms-giving, and communal retreats. Monasteries swell with visitors during these weeks, and the presence of elderly devotees seeking quiet contemplation is not unusual. To strike such a gathering with military ordnance, twice in quick succession, raises questions about targeting intelligence, rules of engagement, and whether the monastery was deliberately selected or caught in the crossfire of a broader operation.

The Sagaing region, where the monastery sits, has seen escalating military activity in recent months as junta forces attempt to consolidate control over central Myanmar. Townships in and around Mandalay have experienced periodic air raids, often followed by ground operations. For residents of Myaung township and surrounding villages, the Friday strikes represent the latest chapter in a pattern that has made even the most sacred spaces feel exposed.

A Nation Under Siege

Fourteen deaths, all of them elderly, all of them seeking spiritual observance, crystallise the human cost of a war that has now entered its fourth year. The junta’s continued reliance on aerial bombardment, its silence in the face of civilian casualties, and the targeting of sites associated with Myanmar’s Buddhist heritage together paint a picture of a conflict in which the distinction between combatant and civilian has grown increasingly blurred. For the families of the dead in Chhay Hoe O and the neighbouring township, the question is not merely one of accountability but of survival in a country where, as one opposition fighter put it, even the act of reaching out to save a neighbour can be interrupted by the next bomb.