Myanmar military strike kills 14 people at a Buddhist monastery, opposition group says

A villager who spoke on condition of anonymity, because he feared for his safety, also confirmed the death toll to The Associated Press. The villager said that the fighter jet dropped two bombs 15 minutes apart, with the second bomb damaging a house near the monastery where more than 100 people were on a weeklong retreat during Buddhist Lent.

The villager, whose mother-in-law was killed in the airstrike, said that people fled to a nearby community after cremating bodies of the victims.

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 didn’t immediately comment. In the past, the army has said that it only attacks legitimate targets of war, accusing the resistance forces of being terrorists.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, triggering a civil war. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are embroiled in conflict.

The military has increasingly used airstrikes to counter opposition forces, including the armed People’s Defense Forces in Sagaing region, a stronghold of armed resistance. The resistance has no effective defense against air attacks.

The monastery attack comes a week after the U.N.-established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, or IIMM, said that it observed a notable escalation in aerial attacks by the military in the months preceding the elections held in December and January, and that they have continued unabated afterward.

Myanmar’s foreign ministry rejected the IIMM report on Sunday, saying that limited airstrikes and counterterrorism operations solely aim at military targets and were carried out in response to insurgents and terrorist groups in accordance with the rules of engagement, and that the security forces exercise maximum restraint to avoid civilian harm.

Grant Peck, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Myanmar military strike kills 14 people at a Buddhist monastery, opposition group says

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