On 4 August 2026, in the afternoon, at 4:07 pm, three helicopters [of the Burma Army[2]] from Bleik (Myeik) Town came and dropped six bombs into Aa--- village, T’Hpoh village tract,[3] Ler Muh Lah Township, Mergui-Tavoy District. [Villagers believed the aircraft came from Myeik Town because there is a Burma Army airbase there. The researcher assumed the aircraft were helicopters because they had rotors above their fuselage and not at the back, and they had tails.] Bombs were dropped in three rounds. Two bombs were dropped each round. The first round of bombs exploded on a villager’s rubber plantation, located at the edge of the village. The second round of bombs exploded near a clinic, in front of a villager’s house that had containers of petrol stored inside. Fragments of the bombs hit the petrol containers and set the house on fire. Then, the fire spread to another house. Thus, in total two houses were burned, and three houses sustained damages. The third round of bombs exploded beside a river, located a bit far from the village. The second round of bombs fatally injured a villager, damaged [three] villagers’ houses, burned two villagers’ houses, and damaged villagers’ plantations, [including] betel nut, rubber, and other types of plantations. The first and third rounds of bombs did not injure any villagers.

The villager who died was named Daw[4] A---, 63 years old. Her ethnicity was Bamar and her religion was Buddhist. [Before the air strike happened,] the villager went to a clinic for a medical checkup. When the villager was doing her checkup, [three] aircraft came and dropped bombs. So, she ran into a bunker [to hide]. After the first bombs were dropped, the villager thought that no more bombs would be dropped. She left, worried for her husband, who was paralysed and left at home. Thus, she came out of the bunker to check on her husband. Soon [when she arrived near the house that had stored petrol], the [second round of] air strikes happened and she sustained an injury to her left shoulder and left thigh. Then the three aircrafts dropped two more bombs nearby a river, located near the village. After the air strikes, when villagers extinguished the fire, they found that Daw A--- was dead, near the house that stored petrol [and caught fire]. Villagers brought back [the corpse of] Daw A--- to her house, and on 5 August 2026, villagers cremated the corpse. One of Daw A---’s children took over the care of their father after Daw A---’s death.

A local authority, the village head of Aa--- village, said: “[We] don’t know why the aircraft came and dropped bombs near the clinic. When the bombs exploded, wind blew and burned villagers’ houses instead of the clinic. Before the air strikes, wounded PDF [People’s Defence Force][5] soldiers from the battlefield were brought back to this clinic to receive treatment. After the soldiers had returned to their place [left the village], the air strike happened.”

The villagers were terrified by the incident because it was the first time that air strikes happened in Aa--- village. Some villagers’ houses have bunkers, and some didn’t. So, villagers who didn’t have bunkers started to dug bunkers. Schools were forced to shut down [for three days] due to the air strikes [before beginning classes again in a different location for safety], and it intensified fear and wariness of parents to send their children to school.

Further background reading on the situation of air strikes in Southeast Burma/Myanmar can be found in the following KHRG reports:

• ကဘီယူၤဟဲလံ Aircraft coming! : Impacts of air strikes on local communities and villagers’ protection strategies in Southeast Burma since the 2021 coup, November 2024.
• “Mu Traw District Incident Report: Burma Army air strikes killed a four-year-old, injured 12 villagers, including two children, and caused displacement in Bu Tho Township (December 2025)”, September 2026.
• “Taw Oo District Short Update: Burma Army air strikes injured a 16-year-old girl and damaged six houses in Daw Hpah Hkoh Township (February to March 2026)”, May 2026.