A devastating air strike by Myanmar’s military has claimed the lives of 14 individuals participating in a meditation retreat at a Buddhist monastery in the Sagaing region, according to an opposition group and local residents.
This tragic event is part of an ongoing pattern of lethal aerial assaults aimed at both anti-government forces and various ethnic armed factions within the nation.
These attacks frequently result in civilian casualties, compounding the humanitarian crisis.
Just two weeks prior, a United Nations report revealed an increase in the military’s use of inexpensive aircraft – such as motorized paragliders and gyrocopters – to intensify aerial assaults against opponents.
This report, from the UN-established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), provides insight into a yearlong investigation concerning possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Myanmar’s military, its militias, and opposing armed groups.
Myanmar’s military government did not immediately respond to either the UN probe. In the past, the military has said it only attacks legitimate targets of war, accusing the resistance forces of being terrorists.
The monastery attack occurred on Friday in Swel Le Oh village in Myaung township, about 75km west of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, according to Nway Oo, a spokesman for the Civil Defence and Security Organisation of Myaung Township, or CDSOM.
Nway Oo said 14 people, including three women, were killed and 20 others were wounded when a jet fighter dropped a bomb in the compound of the village’s monastery.
A villager who spoke on condition of anonymity also confirmed the death toll to the Associated Press.
Bombs dropped
The villager said the jet fighter dropped two bombs 15 minutes apart, with the second bomb damaging a house near the monastery where more than 100 people were on a week-long retreat.
The villager, whose mother-in-law was killed in the air strike, said that people fled to a nearby community after cremating bodies of the victims.
The BBC’s Burmese-language service and Myanmar’s media outlets, including Myanmar Now, reported the death toll at between 10 and 14.
They also posted photos and videos showing what they said was the aftermath of the strike, with images of bodies.
The military did not immediately comment.