SAC Airstrike Kills 15 People Sheltering in Monastery, Bhamo Township, Kachin State

A Myanmar junta airstrike on a monastery sheltering displaced civilians in Bhamo Township, Kachin State, killed 15 people, according to Myanmar Now. Anti-junta resistance forces subsequently relocated hundreds of additional displaced people — prioritizing children and elderly — following the strike, which appeared to deliberately target a civilian shelter facility. Bhamo is a major river port on the Irrawaddy River in southern Kachin State and has been an active frontline zone as the KIA and junta fight along the Bhamo-Myitkyina corridor. The monastery airstrike is consistent with a documented SAC pattern of targeting religious structures used as displacement shelters: the April 13 Seik Hkun Monastery strike (2 monks killed, 8 novice monks injured), the April 7 Shwebo IDP camp strike (monk killed while teaching displaced children), and the April 15 Dae Bu Noh junior college bombing (4 killed). The Bhamo attack brings the total documented monastery/religious site attacks in 2026 to at least four. Myanmar Now also reported that battles had resumed in Kachin State around the same period, with ongoing KIA-junta fighting following the SAC's deployment of 1,000+ reinforcements to the Shwegu corridor from May 2. The 15 dead represent one of the single deadliest individual strikes on a civilian shelter in 2026.