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A fighter jet dropped multiple 250-pound bombs on the Swel Le Oh village monastery compound at around 9 a.m. local time during a weeklong retreat on an important Buddhist observance day known as Ubok Nei according to residents who described the scene to The Irrawaddy. The assault killed 11 men and three women most of them aged between 50 and 70 while wounding more than 20 others with eight men and two women dying at the site and the rest succumbing later in hospital a local rescue coordinator reported. Ko Nway Oo of the Civil Defense and Security Organization of Myaung which assisted survivors confirmed the toll to several outlets adding that the victims were mostly senior citizens staying in the monastery’s dormitories for the meditation session that coincided with the start of Buddhist Lent.
Nway Oo Myaung a pro-democracy rebel who helped recover bodies told Agence France-Presse that five of the dead came from the immediate village while the remaining nine arrived from a neighboring township with the attack striking civilians who had entered the meditation center for the three-month observance period. A second unnamed opposition fighter who joined the rescue effort stated “While we were trying to rescue people the aircraft came to bomb a second time” describing how the jet returned 15 minutes after the initial strike as survivors and helpers gathered at the damaged hall. The fighter added that it was not a mistaken target emphasizing in remarks carried by the South China Morning Post that the military intentionally attacked a monastery.
Myanmar has been gripped by civil war since the military’s 2021 coup that removed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and imposed martial law a conflict that Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project figures show has produced more than 100000 deaths across all sides in the ensuing five years. A United Nations Human Rights Office assessment released in June 2026 verified at least 702 civilian fatalities caused by the military in the prior six months with air strikes remaining the single largest cause of destruction and suffering across resistance-held areas. Sagaing region emerged as the most dangerous for civilians in that period recording 191 deaths including 60 women and 30 children according to the UN data that highlighted repeated strikes on public gatherings.
Public buildings such as monasteries and schools have frequently become sites of reported air strikes in the central region a pattern referenced in last week’s UN report that detailed an October attack on civilians outside a school in Chaung-U township in Sagaing where 23 people including four children died during a candlelit event marking the end of Buddhist Lent. In December a military airplane bombed a tea shop in Tabayin township as residents watched a football match killing at least 19 and wounding 20 more the assessment found underscoring how such incidents have compounded civilian tolls in the area. The latest strike follows similar incidents that have drawn international scrutiny as fighting between junta forces and an array of pro-democracy and ethnic armed groups intensifies.
The Myanmar military has not commented on the August 21 incident but has previously stated that its operations target only legitimate military objectives while denying deliberate attacks on civilians according to repeated accounts from Al Jazeera and The Washington Post. Opposition groups and local media outlets including BBC Burmese placed the death toll between 10 and 14 in initial reports with the confirmed figure of 14 corroborated by multiple witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity citing safety fears. Images shared by the Myaung Union Army and residents showed debris scattered across the monastery grounds after the dual strikes that also damaged a nearby house sheltering retreat participants.
More than 3 million people have been internally displaced by the conflict since the coup according to United Nations estimates that also note hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring countries amid the violence. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has tracked thousands of additional arrests and civilian killings since 2021 with Sagaing consistently ranking among the hardest-hit regions in monthly updates that align with the ACLED data on overall fatalities. Rescue workers cremated the victims’ bodies before many survivors fled to nearby communities following the attack that has heightened concerns over the safety of religious sites during sacred Buddhist periods.
