Deadly Junta Airstrike on Kyauktaw School Kills 18 Students

Arakan Now | 13 September 2025

Kyauktaw, September 12 — At least 18 students were killed and more than 20 others injured when Myanmar junta forces launched a deadly airstrike on a school in Kyauktaw Township, according to a statement by the Arakan Army (AA).

The attack took place at around 1 a.m. on September 12, when two 500-pound bombs were dropped on Pyinnya Pan Khin Private High School in Thayet Ta Pin Village. Local sources reported that classrooms and surrounding houses were destroyed in the strike, and many of the wounded remain in critical condition.

“The airstrike was deliberate and targeted,” an AA spokesperson said, accusing the junta’s Military Commission of escalating attacks on civilian areas in Rakhine State.

The September 12 bombing follows a series of recent strikes. On September 10, a junta fighter jet bombed the mountain range near the Zee Chaung Dam along the Kyauktaw–Paletwa highway. Less than three weeks earlier, on August 25, an airstrike in Dine Kyi ward of Mrauk-U killed 15 civilians, including children, and injured 18 others.

Residents say the junta has been conducting near-daily aerial surveillance and attacks on areas under or near AA control, leaving communities in constant fear of sudden bombardments.

Human rights monitors have previously accused the junta of using airstrikes as a weapon of terror against civilians in ethnic minority regions, a charge the regime denies.

The latest strike in Kyauktaw is among the deadliest in recent months and has drawn sharp condemnation from local organizations documenting civilian casualties in Rakhine.