Myanmar paramotor bombings kill three residents in Magway’s Mindon in five days

Mizzima

Three residents of Mindon Township, Magway Region, including a child, were killed between 8 and 12 October in two junta bombings carried out with motorized paragliders, known as paramotors, according to People’s Defense Force (PDF) Thayet District Battalion 4.

The battalion said the paramotors took off from the No. 12 Defence Equipment Factory (Ka Pa Sa 12) near Thayet.

On 8 October at about 5:25 p.m., three paramotors dropped nine bombs on Chin Nit village, killing Maung Wai Yan Oo, 12, and an 83-year-old man, the battalion said. Three others were injured, seven cows were killed, and a clinic and many houses were damaged, according to a statement released with photographs.

On 12 October, two paramotors from the same factory dropped eight bombs on Mezali village, killing Ko Sit Thu, 40, and destroying two houses, according to the battalion.

Ko Myat, the battalion’s information officer, told Mizzima that paramotor attacks in Mindon have increased in 2026. He said Mezali was being bombed for the second time and that Zun Gya and Chin Nit villages had also been hit. He said the aircraft take off from and land at the factory, and that the villages bombed lie within about 15 miles of it, which gives the junta an advantage.

He said there was no fighting or ground column near the villages hit and that civilians were being targeted. He said directly attacking non-military villages and clinics violates the Geneva Conventions and amounts to a war crime, and that the PDF will intensify its armed resistance.

The PDF warned residents to be vigilant, saying it considers the junta to be deliberately attacking civilian areas in Mindon by air and with heavy artillery. Ko Myat urged residents to take cover when they hear a paramotor’s engine, which he said can be heard from a distance, and to dig bomb shelters near their homes.

The UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) said in an August report that in incidents in upper Sagaing, paramotor pilots allegedly cut their engines as they approached targets and glided silently, leaving civilians little or no warning, according to Taipei Times.