Myanmar Witness / Social media user.” Source: Myanmar Witness, “Tracing the damage and civilian impact of an airstrike in Kyauktaw” (8 Oct 2026) The United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) has asked the public to identify the pilots who bombed a market in Kyauktaw, Rakhine State, on September 28, and the officers who ordered the strike.In a September 30 statement, the mechanism also requested information identifying the air base from which the aircraft departed, photographs and videos of weapon remnants, and details about anyone involved in issuing or carrying out the orders.Two bombs struck the commercial area near India Market and Kissapanadi Bridge shortly after noon. The Arakan Army (AA), the ethnic armed group that controls Kyauktaw, initially reported 33 dead and 36 injured. The following day, the AA and local aid worker Wai Hun Aung put the toll at 50 killed and 58 injured, according to Reuters. Burma News International reported that 21 of the wounded were in life-threatening condition.According to the IIMM, the victims included traders, shoppers, cargo workers, women and children, among them a pregnant woman and her baby. The UN human rights office said the market contained more than 200 shops serving Rakhine, Rohingya and Hindu residents. Burma News International reported that fires burned passenger vehicles, motorcycles and three-wheelers.The AA has controlled Kyauktaw since early 2024, when it captured the headquarters of the military’s Military Operations Command No. 9.Myanmar Witness, an open-source investigations project of the UK-based Centre for Information Resilience, geolocated footage to the bridge and market area and identified visual evidence of at least 33 deaths, describing that figure as a minimum estimate. Although the group could not verify the aircraft, munitions or attacker’s identity, it said the Myanmar Air Force was “the only known entity” capable of conducting an airstrike. The Burma army is the only force in Burma with airplanes and helicopters.The military has previously said it exercises maximum restraint to avoid harming civilians and has denied responsibility for specific strikes. After a January 2024 strike on a church in Sagaing Region, state television called the reports “fake news” and said no aircraft had flown that morning. Myanmar Witness later identified a Q-5 ground-attack jet over the village just before the explosion and counted four Q-5s at Tada-U air base that morning.Speaking on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the UN “strongly condemns the attacks.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the Kyauktaw strike “raises serious concerns about respect for international humanitarian law.” The European Union attributed the strike to “Myanmar’s Armed Forces.”The IIMM has previously sought information about other deadly airstrikes in Rakhine State. On September 12, 2025, a strike on a boarding school in Thayat Tabin village, Kyauktaw Township, killed at least 22 people, most of them students. The mechanism sought information identifying the pilots and the orders they followed. After a December 10, 2025, strike on Mrauk U General Hospital killed at least 30 people, its hospital appeal also asked who supplied the air force with fuel.According to its 2026 annual report, the IIMM has collected more than 28 million items from over 1,600 sources, along with 756 witness statements and screening notes. It has identified some military units responsible for aerial attacks and linked aircraft operating from bases in Magway, Tada-U, Taungoo and Nay Pyi Taw to attacks in specific regions. The mechanism is also gathering evidence on the air force’s command structure and unit commanders. The IIMM has documented more than 600 air attacks on religious buildings nationwide.The IIMM is not a court. It collects evidence and shares it with courts that have jurisdiction, providing 146 evidence packages since its establishment. These include 40 witness statements and nine analytical reports supplied for The Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court heard arguments on the merits of the case from January 12 to 29, 2026, and is now deliberating. No date has been set for a judgment.In November 2024, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested an arrest warrant for junta leader Min Aung Hlaing for the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya in 2017. The IIMM provided evidence, including witness statements, for the investigation. Almost two years later, the court has issued no public decision, though a sealed warrant cannot be ruled out.In April 2026, a parliament dominated by Min Aung Hlaing’s loyalists elected him president following elections held in December and January. Amnesty International said the title gives no immunity and that ICC member states would be obliged to arrest him if the court issues a warrant.According to an Opinio Juris analysis, the ICC investigation covers only crimes committed at least partly in Bangladesh or another member state. The Kyauktaw strike occurred entirely inside Burma, which is not an ICC member. A UN Security Council referral could give the court jurisdiction over such crimes, a step the International Commission of Jurists has urged since 2018.A third legal avenue runs through Argentina. In February 2025, a Buenos Aires court called for warrants for Min Aung Hlaing and other officials on genocide charges under universal jurisdiction. The case was filed in 2019 by the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. The IIMM shares evidence with Argentina’s federal prosecutors and authorities in the United Kingdom.The IIMM is accepting information identifying the Kyauktaw pilots and others involved in the strike through the encrypted messaging app Signal and the email service Proton Mail.The post UN Investigators Want the Names of the Pilots Who Bombed a Burma Market appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.