A junta airstrike targeting residential homes near Mezali Village in Mindon Township, Magway Region, killed an internally displaced woman and seriously injured another on September 6, despite no active fighting being reported in the area, according to residents.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. on September 6, junta aircraft bombed homes along the Pathein-Monywa Highway, north of the Mezali Bridge. Roughly 30 minutes later, two motorized paragliders (paramotors) conducted follow-up bombing runs and opened fire indiscriminately with machine guns.
The double assault severely injured two displaced women who had taken refuge in Mezali Village; one died from her injuries later that evening. Local sources confirmed that the victim had previously fled Arakan Army (AA)-controlled Nyaungkyoe Village in neighboring Bago Region’s Padaung Township. The strikes also inflicted extensive structural damage on nearby homes.
“During the initial strike, the first bomb hit a police officer’s house near the bridge. The homes directly across the road were also struck and badly damaged,” a local woman in her 40s said.
A resident noted that the paramotors likely launched from neighboring Thayet Township rather than Mindon, adding that this was the first reported deployment of motorized paragliders in Mindon Township.
Locals assessed that the aircraft targeted the northern outskirts of the village—an area frequently used as a transit route by anti-regime resistance forces—rather than the main village center.
Following the airstrikes, rumors of an impending junta ground column triggered a mass pre-emptive evacuation of Mezali and neighboring villages, including Thayetoke, Dalelpyin, and Mezali Ywama. Women, children, and the elderly were among those who fled into nearby forests and safer areas.
According to local residents, anti-junta resistance forces control most sections of the Pathein-Monywa Highway running through Kanma, Mindon, and Minhla townships in Magway Region’s Thayet District, with the junta maintaining control over only a few isolated checkpoints and positions.
