In the Sagaing region of central Myanmar, a place long associated with Buddhist learning and resistance to military rule, fighter jets bombed a monastery compound during a weeklong religious retreat, killing fourteen people who had gathered not for war but for worship. The attack is not an aberration — it is a chapter in a civil conflict that has claimed more than one hundred thousand lives since the 2021 coup, one in which sacred spaces offer no sanctuary. As resistance forces consolidate control over nearly half the country and the military loses ground, the skies above Myanmar have become t
Myanmar military airstrike kills 14 at Buddhist monastery during religious retreat
14 people killed including three women and 20 injured in airstrike on monastery housing 100+ civilians during religious retreat; part of ongoing conflict displacing 5.2 million.
Over a hundred worshippers gathered to pray. Fourteen did not leave.
Mark
Why would a military target a monastery during a religious retreat? What could possibly be the strategic logic?
Mimi
The monastery sits in Sagaing, a region controlled by armed resistance groups. The military may have believed fighters were sheltering there, or simply that the area itself was hostile territory. But that's the military's reasoning. The reality is that over a hundred civilians came to observe Lent, and fourteen of them died.
Mark
The military says it only hits legitimate targets. Do you believe that's true in this case?
Mimi
I can't know what the pilots saw or thought they were targeting. What I know is that a religious retreat is not a military installation, and the dead include three women and civilians who came to pray. The military's claim about restraint doesn't match what happened on the ground.
Mark
This is one strike among many. How does it fit into the larger war?
Mimi
It's part of a documented escalation. The UN investigators saw aerial attacks spike before the recent elections and continue afterward. As the resistance controls more territory—forty-two percent now—the military seems to be compensating with air power. That's a sign the conflict is shifting, and civilians are paying the price.
Mark
What does the resistance control look like compared to the military?
Mimi
The military holds twenty-one percent of the country. The resistance—various armed groups and ethnic armies—holds forty-two percent. That's a dramatic reversal from 2021. The military is losing ground, which may explain why they're bombing more aggressively.
Mark
How many people have died in this war?
Mimi
Over one hundred thousand. And five point two million have been displaced. This monastery strike is one incident in a much larger catastrophe that's been unfolding for nearly five years.
El Pulso
- Two bombs fell fifteen minutes apart on the Swel Le Oh monastery in Myaung township, killing fourteen people — including three women — while more than a hundred worshippers observed Buddhist Lent.
- A man lost his mother-in-law in the strike; twenty others were wounded, and the compound that had drawn a community together for prayer became a site of mass casualty.
- The military has issued no statement, defaulting to its established posture of denying civilian targeting while the bodies are counted by opposition groups and local residents.
- UN investigators have documented a sharp escalation in aerial attacks tied to recent elections, and Friday's monastery strike fits a pattern of airpower deployed as territorial control slips away from the junta.
- With resistance forces now holding 42% of the country against the military's 21%, the conflict shows no near-term path to resolution — only a deepening reliance on strikes that reach far beyond any front line.
In the Sagaing region of central Myanmar, a place long associated with Buddhist learning and resistance to military rule, fighter jets bombed a monastery compound during a weeklong religious retreat, killing fourteen people who had gathered not for war but for worship. The attack is not an aberration — it is a chapter in a civil conflict that has claimed more than one hundred thousand lives since the 2021 coup, one in which sacred spaces offer no sanctuary. As resistance forces consolidate control over nearly half the country and the military loses ground, the skies above Myanmar have become the junta's most reliable instrument of power, and the consequences fall most heavily on those who are simply present.
On a Friday in central Myanmar, a fighter jet dropped two bombs on the Swel Le Oh monastery in Myaung township, roughly fifty kilometers west of Mandalay. More than a hundred people had gathered at the compound to observe Buddhist Lent — a weeklong religious retreat — when the plane made two passes fifteen minutes apart. Fourteen people were killed, among them three women. Twenty more were wounded. One resident, speaking anonymously, said his mother-in-law died in the attack.
Myaung township lies in the Sagaing region, a heartland of armed resistance to military rule since the February 2021 coup that overthrew Myanmar's elected government. The military has offered no statement about the strike, as it has in past incidents maintained that its forces target only legitimate military objectives and exercise restraint — claims that have grown harder to sustain as civilian casualties mount.
The broader toll of Myanmar's civil war is staggering: more than one hundred thousand dead, and 5.2 million people displaced since the coup. Resistance forces now control roughly 42% of the country, compared to the military's 21% — a territorial imbalance that points toward years of continued conflict. The United Nations' investigative mechanism has documented a notable intensification of aerial attacks in the period surrounding recent elections, a pattern that Friday's monastery bombing extends. As the junta loses ground to a patchwork of armed groups and ethnic armies, airstrikes have become its most relied-upon instrument — one that, as this week demonstrated, reaches into places of worship as readily as any battlefield.
A fighter jet dropped two bombs on a Buddhist monastery in central Myanmar on Friday, killing fourteen people who had gathered for a weeklong religious retreat. The attack struck Swel Le Oh village in Myaung township, roughly fifty kilometers west of Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city. More than a hundred worshippers had come to the monastery compound to observe Buddhist Lent when the plane arrived and released its payload fifteen minutes apart, according to a local resident who witnessed the strike.
Among the dead were three women. Twenty others were wounded in the bombing. A spokesperson for the Civil Defense and Security Organization of Myaung Township confirmed the death toll and identified the target as a religious compound. One villager, speaking anonymously to international media, said his mother-in-law was killed in the attack. The BBC's Burmese Service and local news outlets reported casualty figures ranging between ten and fourteen, though the higher count has been corroborated by opposition groups and residents on the ground.
The military has not yet issued a statement about the strike. In previous incidents, Myanmar's armed forces have maintained that they target only legitimate military objectives and take precautions to minimize civilian harm. The government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has similarly argued that its security forces exercise maximum restraint, claiming strikes are directed only at what it characterizes as terrorist organizations.
Myaung township sits in the Sagaing region, a stronghold of armed resistance to military rule. Myanmar has been locked in a near-total civil war since the army seized power in February 2021, overthrowing an elected government. When the military violently suppressed peaceful protests against the coup, many opponents took up arms. The conflict now involves a patchwork of ethnically and politically distinct armed groups, some with roots stretching back decades.
The scale of the violence has been staggering. More than one hundred thousand people have been killed since the coup. An estimated five point two million have been displaced from their homes. The resistance forces—a coalition of armed groups and ethnic armies—now control roughly forty-two percent of the country, compared to the military government's twenty-one percent. The balance of territorial control suggests the conflict will persist for years.
International observers have documented a troubling pattern. The United Nations-established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar reported in August that aerial attacks intensified sharply before elections held in December and January, and have continued at the same pace since. The monastery bombing fits this trajectory of escalating air campaigns. As the military's grip on territory weakens and resistance forces consolidate control over larger portions of the country, the armed forces appear to be relying more heavily on airstrikes—a tactic that, as Friday's attack demonstrates, carries severe risks for civilians gathered in places far from any battlefield.
Citas Notables
A local resident confirmed the death toll and said his mother-in-law was killed in the attack.— Anonymous villager
The military has previously stated it only attacks legitimate targets and exercises maximum restraint to avoid civilian harm.— Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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