Civilians in resistance-held territories continue to face indiscriminate bombing by junta forces. Attacks on Taung Kyaung Pauk school and Pekhon’s IDP camps have left families homeless, wounded, and dead.
BY PC Bureau
July 8, 2025 — In a deadly escalation of its campaign against resistance-held territories, Myanmar’s military junta carried out a series of airstrikes from July 5 to 8, killing at least 13 civilians—including three children—and injuring six others, including two pregnant women. The attacks hit a school in Bago Region, internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in southern Shan State, and civilian areas in Kyaukme and Mogoke townships, drawing widespread condemnation from resistance groups and rights organizations.
School Shelter Bombed in Bago Region
On the morning of July 5, a junta drone dropped a 120-mm mortar round on a school in Taung Kyaung Pauk village, Kyaukkyi Township, Nyaunglebin District. The school, repurposed as a shelter for displaced families, was struck without warning, killing six civilians—two boys aged one and six, and four adults aged between 30 and 65. Three women were injured, one of them pregnant.
The Karen National Union (KNU), which controls the area under Brigade 3, blamed the strike on junta troops based at Nathan Kwin military outpost. The KNU noted that no clashes were taking place in the area at the time of the strike, suggesting the bombing was intentional. “This was a deliberate attack on civilians,” a KNU spokesperson said, urging the international community to intervene.
Airstrike on Pekhon IDP Camps Kills Three
Around midnight on July 7, a junta aircraft dropped bombs on two IDP camps between La Ei and Bi Kin villages in Pekhon Township, southern Shan State. The camps, located near the Kayah State border, housed families fleeing recent fighting in Moebye.
The attack killed three members of the same family—a 29-year-old man, a 26-year-old woman, and their four-year-old daughter. Three others were injured, including another pregnant woman, according to Banya Khung Aung, spokesperson for the Karenni Human Rights Group (KHRG). A resident reported that one of the bombs failed to detonate, possibly preventing further casualties.
#Bago Region, Six displaced people including two young boys were killed and three including a pregnant woman were injured when a junta drone bombed Taung Kyaung Pauk Village’s school in Nyaunglebin on Saturday.#2025Jul08Coup#AidPeople_NotJunta#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/uuly4aaVRE
— Nwe (@scarlletnn) July 8, 2025
The strike came one day after junta forces recaptured Moebye, which resistance fighters had held since 2023. The regime has since reinforced its presence in the area, particularly around Light Infantry Battalion 422, amid continued clashes.
Thousands of residents have fled Pekhon for nearby Demoso Township in Kayah State, where humanitarian conditions are deteriorating rapidly due to overcrowded shelters, food shortages, and blocked access roads worsened by monsoon rains.
Tuesday Strikes Hit Kyaukme and Mogoke
On July 8, airstrikes were also reported in Kyaukme Township (northern Shan) and Mogoke Township (Mandalay Region). According to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), four civilians—three women and one man—were killed in these attacks, which targeted civilian zones under TNLA control. Specific details were limited, but local sources confirmed that no military targets were nearby.
Escalating Violence, Worsening Crisis
These attacks mark the latest in a series of airstrikes targeting non-combatants. Human rights groups have condemned the junta’s increasing use of aerial attacks as war crimes. Previous incidents this year include a June airstrike in Karenni State’s Hpasawng Township that killed eight, and a May attack in Sagaing Region that claimed 24 lives, most of them children.
The junta’s latest airstrikes on Shan State’s Kyaukme and Mandalay Region’s Mogoke on Tuesday morning killed four civilians—three women and a man—according to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) which controls the two townships.#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/63tXp1R7at
— The Irrawaddy (Eng) (@IrrawaddyNews) July 8, 2025
Since the 2021 coup, over 30,000 civilians have been displaced in KNU-held areas alone. The recent destruction of a school in Taung Kyaung Pauk and IDP camps in Pekhon has further devastated access to shelter, education, and basic survival.
Resistance-linked accounts on X (formerly Twitter), such as @KPSN19 and @DossierTibet, have circulated images and survivor testimonies, amplifying calls for international accountability.
The TNLA, KNU, and KHRG have all demanded immediate humanitarian assistance and action from global institutions to halt what they call a deliberate campaign of terror against ethnic minorities and displaced civilians.
