In the Sagaing region of central Myanmar, a place long defined by temples and the rhythms of spiritual life, military airstrikes struck a monastery during a Buddhist Lent meditation retreat, killing fourteen elderly civilians and monks. The attack came in two waves — the second falling as rescuers searched the rubble — deepening a pattern of violence against civilian sites that has marked Myanmar's civil war since the 2021 coup. Those who gathered seeking contemplation found instead that no space, however sacred, has been spared from the logic of this conflict.
Fourteen killed in military air strikes on Myanmar monastery during meditation retreat
Fourteen elderly civilians, including monks, were killed in the airstrikes, with additional injuries reported among those at the meditation retreat.
While we were trying to rescue people, the aircraft came to bomb a second time
Mark
Why would the military strike a monastery during a meditation retreat? What could possibly be the strategic value?
Mimi
That's the question that haunts this story. The military claims it only targets legitimate military positions. But a monastery full of elderly civilians observing Buddhist Lent doesn't fit that description by any reasonable measure. Either the intelligence was catastrophically wrong, or the definition of a legitimate target has become something else entirely.
Mark
The fact that it was struck twice—once, then again during rescue efforts—that seems deliberate.
Mimi
It does. A rescue worker was there, opposition fighters were pulling people from the rubble, and then the aircraft returned. Whether that second strike was aimed at the rescuers themselves or simply at finishing what the first strike started, the effect is the same: it prevented people from being saved.
Mark
How does an attack like this fit into the larger civil war?
Mimi
Myanmar has been fractured since the coup. The military controls the state apparatus, but armed opposition groups have been fighting back. Civilians are caught in the middle. A monastery isn't a military installation, but in a civil war, the lines blur. If opposition fighters were in the area, the military might have used that as justification. But that doesn't explain why elderly monks and civilians at a spiritual retreat became targets.
Mark
The military hasn't commented. Does that silence mean anything?
Mimi
It means they're not defending the strike, which is telling. They usually deny civilian casualties outright. This time, nothing. That absence of a statement might be the most honest thing they could have done.
O Pulso
- Fourteen elderly men and women, aged fifty to seventy, were killed at a monastery in Myaung township during one of Buddhism's most sacred periods of devotion.
- The attack struck twice — first killing and wounding those gathered for retreat, then returning as rescue workers and opposition fighters were pulling survivors from the rubble.
- The deliberate or calculated nature of the double strike has deepened alarm among those documenting the military's conduct toward civilian sites.
- Myanmar's junta has issued no statement, maintaining its long-standing silence on specific incidents even as evidence of strikes on schools, hospitals, and places of worship continues to accumulate.
- The attack lands as one more data point in a widening pattern — a civil war in which civilians, not combatants, consistently bear the heaviest cost.
In the Sagaing region of central Myanmar, a place long defined by temples and the rhythms of spiritual life, military airstrikes struck a monastery during a Buddhist Lent meditation retreat, killing fourteen elderly civilians and monks. The attack came in two waves — the second falling as rescuers searched the rubble — deepening a pattern of violence against civilian sites that has marked Myanmar's civil war since the 2021 coup. Those who gathered seeking contemplation found instead that no space, however sacred, has been spared from the logic of this conflict.
On a Friday morning in central Myanmar, airstrikes struck a monastery in Myaung township, about seventy kilometers west of Mandalay, killing fourteen people gathered for a Buddhist Lent meditation retreat. All of the dead were elderly — men and women between fifty and seventy years old, including monks — assembled for a period of heightened devotion in one of the most spiritually significant seasons of the Buddhist calendar.
The attack came in two waves. After the initial strike killed and wounded those inside the compound, the aircraft returned while rescue workers and opposition fighters were searching the rubble for survivors. One fighter described the moment plainly: they were trying to help people when the bombs fell again. Whether the second strike was aimed at rescue efforts or simply intended to ensure maximum destruction, its effect was to turn an act of mercy into another moment of loss.
Myanmar's military offered no public comment — a familiar silence from a junta that has consistently denied targeting civilians even as evidence of strikes on monasteries, schools, hospitals, and markets has mounted throughout the civil war that began with the 2021 coup. The Sagaing region, a landscape of rural villages and ancient temples where spiritual practice has long shaped daily life, has seen repeated violence. The elderly men and women who came to the monastery seeking a few days of quiet reflection had no part in the conflict. They became its casualties nonetheless.
On a Friday morning in central Myanmar, a monastery in Myaung township became the site of a deadly military operation. Fourteen people lay dead after airstrikes struck the compound around nine o'clock local time, according to rescue workers and opposition fighters who arrived at the scene. All of the victims were elderly—men and women between fifty and seventy years old—gathered at the monastery for a meditation retreat marking Buddhist Lent, one of the most sacred periods in the Buddhist calendar.
The monastery sits about seventy kilometers west of Mandalay, in the Sagaing region, a landscape of temples and rural villages where spiritual practice has long been woven into daily life. On this particular morning, civilians and monks had come together for the retreat, a time of heightened devotion and contemplation. What should have been a day of quiet reflection became something else entirely.
The attack came in two waves. The initial strike killed and wounded those gathered inside. But as rescue workers and opposition fighters rushed to the site to pull survivors from the rubble, the aircraft returned. One unnamed opposition fighter who was among those searching for survivors described the moment with stark simplicity: while they were trying to rescue people, the aircraft came to bomb a second time. The dual strikes suggest either a deliberate targeting of rescue efforts or a calculated decision to ensure maximum damage.
According to opposition sources, the dead included eleven men and three women. Five of the victims came from one village; the remaining nine from a neighboring township. The monks at the monastery were among those injured, though the full extent of the casualties remains unclear. A rescue worker speaking to BBC Burmese confirmed that the site had been struck twice and that monks were among the wounded.
Myanmar's military has offered no public statement about the attack. This silence is notable given the military's standard position: that it only strikes legitimate military targets. The junta has faced repeated accusations of carrying out airstrikes on public buildings—schools, hospitals, markets—throughout the civil war that has consumed the country since the 2021 coup that removed Aung San Suu Kyi from power. The military has consistently denied targeting civilians, even as evidence of such strikes accumulates.
The monastery attack is one incident in a broader pattern of violence that has defined Myanmar since the coup. The country has been under martial rule, and armed opposition groups have fought back against military control. Civilians caught between these forces have borne the heaviest cost. A meditation retreat at a monastery—a place explicitly dedicated to peace and spiritual practice—offers no protection. The elderly men and women who gathered there on Friday morning were seeking a few days of contemplation. Instead, they became casualties in a war that shows no sign of ending.
Citações Notáveis
Older people had entered the meditation centres. The dead were aged between 50 and 70.— Nway Oo Myaung, pro-democracy opposition fighter, to AFP
While we were trying to rescue people, the aircraft came to bomb a second time.— Unnamed opposition fighter present at the scene
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