MYANMAR: Airstrikes by Myanmar’s military on Tuesday killed over 100 people, including many children, who were attending a ceremony held by opponents of army rule, said a witness, a member of a local pro-democracy group and independent media.
The military is increasingly using airstrikes to counter a widespread armed struggle against its rule, which began
in February 2021 when it seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. More than 3,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed since then by security forces.
A witness told The Associated Press that a fighter jet dropped bombs directly into a crowd of people who were gathering at 8 a.m. for the opening of a local office of the country’s opposition movement outside Pazigyi village in Sagaing region’s Kanbalu township. The area is about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city.
About half an hour later, a helicopter appeared and fired at the site, said the witness, who asked not to be identified because he feared punishment by the authorities. About 150 people had gathered for the opening ceremony, and women and 20-30 children were among the dead, he said, adding that those killed also included leaders of locally formed anti-government armed groups and other opposition organizations.
The death toll from the attack, if confirmed, could be the highest in more than two years of civil conflict that began when the army seized power in 2021. As many as 80 people were killed last October in another government air attack in northern Myanmar on an anniversary celebration of the Kachin ethnic minority’s main political organization, which is also battling the military government.
The Army has been conducting major offensives in the countryside, including burning villages and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. It has faced some of its toughest resistance in Sagaing, in Myanmar’s historic heartland. The resistance forces have no defense against air attacks.
In videos of the devastated village shows survivors and onlookers stumbling through the area of the attack amid clouds of thick smoke, with only the skeleton frame of one building still standing in the distance. The videos could not immediately be verified but matched other descriptions of the scene.
Some motorbikes remained intact while others were reduced to their frames or buried under tree branches. In one area, two victims lay close together, one of whom had only one arm still attached.
Another victim lay face down in a small grove by the roadside. A few meters (yards) away, a small torso missing at least one limb could be seen.- THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
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