Type of Incident

Air strike killed two villagers

Date of Incident(s)

March 19th 2025

Incident Location

(Village, Township and District)

Aa--- village [area], Noh Poe village tract[2], Kaw T’Ree Township, Dooplaya District

Victim Information

Name

Saw[3] A---

Saw B---

Age

35 years old

34 years old

Gender

Man

Man

Ethnicity

Karen

Karen

Marital Status  

Married

Married

Occupation

Farmer

Farmer

Religion

Buddhist

Buddhist

Position

Villager

Villager

Village

Aa--- village

Aa--- village

Perpetrator Information (Armed Actors)

Name(s)           

Rank

Unit

Base

Commander’s Name

N/A

N/A

Burma Army Air Force [under the command of the State Administration Council (SAC)[4]]

N/A

[General Tun Aung serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Burma Army Air Force][5]

1. Explain in detail how this information was collected.

A KHRG field researcher received the information from a local villager and went to the incident place [Aa--- village] in March 2025 [exact date censored for security] to document the information. [At Aa--- village, the researcher interviewed Naw C---, the wife of Saw B---; Naw D---, the wife of Saw A---; and Saw E---, Aa--- village administrator]

2. Explain how the source verified this information.

The researcher interviewed the wives of Saw B--- and Saw A---: Naw[6] C--- and Naw D---. In addition, the researcher also interviewed Aa--- village administrator, Saw E---, who knows about the incident [as he found the dead body of Saw B---].

Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail.

On March 19th 2025, in the morning, at around 11 o’clock, an aircraft came and dropped two 500-pound bombs inside Aa--- village, Noh Poe village tract, Kaw T’Ree Township, Dooplaya District, resulting in the deaths of two villagers. [One bomb landed in front of the house of Naw C--- and Saw B---, and another bomb landed beside a nearby farm hut, where Saw B--- was taking a nap. The distance between the place where the first and second bomb landed was around 20 metres from each other.]

• The death of Saw B---:

On March 19th 2025, Saw B--- was staying in a farm hut to work [around 20 meters away from his home, at Aa--- village]. At around 11 am, he was in the hut taking a nap in a hammock. At that time, the air strike happened and a bomb was dropped near the hut. The shrapnel hit him and he died on the spot. The hut was also damaged.

Earlier that day, Saw E--- (40 years old), the Aa--- village administrator, went searching for vegetables with [another villager named] Saw F--- inside a forest far from the village. The two did not know that the air strikes had happened in their village at around 11 am. In the afternoon, the two returned to the village. [On their way back, Saw E--- was walking ahead of Saw F---.] When Saw E--- arrived at Aa--- village area, he saw the farm hut, where Saw B--- was resting, built under a tree, and the place was filled with coldness [he could sense something was not right]. When he looked, he saw a hammock and dangling legs. A body had fallen off from the hammock and was laying on the ground. The hammock was tied not too high from the ground. Saw E--- felt scared to enter the hut alone. Thus, he went back to [the centre of] the village and informed others to come along with him.

When they [Saw E--- and other local villagers] returned, they saw a long piece of bamboo had penetrated the abdomen of Saw B---. When villagers flipped him up, they saw that the flesh of the body of Saw B--- from chest to waist [his torso] was blown off by shrapnel. His flesh had broken down into pieces and was scattered everywhere inside and outside of the farm hut. Villagers could not gather all of the remains as they were too small and they were everywhere. Thus, villagers burned down the farm hut and cremated the body of Saw B--- at the incident place, as it was too hard to carry it back to the village.  

The other bomb exploded near the house of Naw C--- (who is the wife of Saw B---). On that day, she was staying at home when she heard the aircraft come. She and her two kids went inside the bunker [location censored for security]. A few minutes later, she thought she heard the sound of rain, so she went outside to check. She saw her house was burning, so she took her kids and ran to the [centre of the] village without slippers, hoping to receive some help [to put the fire out]. However, when she arrived to the [the centre of the] village, the house had already burnt down. Later she heard that her husband had died, but she did not dare to go see [the dead body of] her husband, because it was too heartbreaking for her to have to witness losing both their house and also her beloved husband.

Naw C--- explained [to the KHRG researcher] that she faced difficulties after her husband’s death, as all her properties and everything inside the house (such as food, goods, and household equipment) had been destroyed. She also said that her two children are too young to support their family’s livelihood.

• The death of Saw A---:

On March 19th 2025, in the morning, Saw A--- went to the hill farmland, located outside of Aa---village, to make charcoal. He also went to his mother-in-law’s house to cook. At around 11 am, he decided to return home. On his way home [on a road on the outskirts of the village], he was hit by the air strike [by the shrapnel from the two bombs which landed near the house of Saw B--- and Naw C---] and died on the road. Nobody knows any details about his death as he was going home alone.

In the afternoon, the father-in-law of Saw A--- went out to search for his cows [that were grazing outside of the village]. A few minutes later, his nephew also followed him. On the way, they saw Saw A--- was laying on the road. For a moment, they thought Saw A--- got drunk and fell asleep on the road because he looked like he was breathing. So, they approached Saw A--- and checked on him. They saw that the hunting rifle of Saw A--- [which was lying next to him] was stained red with blood. At first, the father-in-law thought Saw A--- had shot himself. The spine of Saw A--- was broken and detached from his body, as he had been hit by shrapnel. When the father-in-law flipped him up, Saw A---’s organs came out from his body. His eyes were blinking and his mouth was open but he could not talk. The father-in-law returned to the village to inform other villagers. Meanwhile, the nephew stayed with the corpse and cried out loud. The corpse was brought back to his house. His body was cleaned before he was buried.

When the aircraft came, Naw D---, the wife of Saw A---, was inside their house [in the village] with their youngest child (2 years old), who was upstairs. Their other two children (aged 9 and 8 years old) were playing outside in the field. She called the two children, grabbed her youngest child, and ran into the bunker. In the evening, she was informed about her husband’s death, and she fainted twice. Naw D--- explained [to the KHRG researcher] that, after the death of her husband, livelihood difficulties grew for her. She worried that she would be unable to send her children to school as she did not know what to do to obtain income. Saw A--- was the breadwinner of the family and the family relied on his income.

Local villagers believe that the aircraft which carried out the attack was a State Administration Council (SAC) aircraft because ethnic armed groups do not have aircraft. Villagers also believe that the air strike happened as the SAC was targeting a building where People’s Defence Forces (PDF)[7] used to provide military trainings, located on the opposite side of the road to the house of Saw B---.

There had been no air strikes prior to this incident in the village. Now, villagers do not dare to turn on the lights during the nighttime as they fear aircraft will come.

Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided.

Regarding the documented information that I [researcher] have written and documented related to this air strike incident in Aa--- village, the victims’ family members [Naw C--- and Naw D---] gave permission to use this information according to KHRG’s publication policies [with censoring]. [In addition, Saw E--- (the village administrator) also allowed to use this information].