Devastating air raid
Military junta in Myanmar attacks village – up to 100 dead and many injured in air attack
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is the head of the Myanmar Military Council. After the coup in February 2021, he promised to hold elections – these are still pending today
© Aung Shine Oo/AP/DPA
After a devastating air raid by the military junta on a village in Myanmar, there is horror in the crisis-ridden country. Eyewitnesses spoke of at least 90 to 100 dead and many injured. The UN condemned the attack.
According to media reports, dozens of people have been killed in an airstrike by the ruling military junta in Myanmar. More than 50 people were killed and dozens more injured in the attack on the remote community of Kantbalu in the Sagaing region on Tuesday morning, the BBC’s Myanmar service, news website The Irrawaddy and Radio Free Asia reported. There is particularly fierce resistance in the region to the military junta in power in Myanmar. The Foreign Office and the UN condemned the attack.
A spokesman for the junta said late Tuesday evening there was an opening ceremony for a People’s Defense Forces office in Pazi Gyi town. “We attacked this place.” The spokesman did not give an exact number of deaths.
Eyewitnesses in Myanmar speak of 90 to 100 dead
Some of the dead are uniformed fighters, but there could also be “some people in civilian clothes”. The spokesman also blamed mines laid by the anti-junta group for the deaths of some people.
A rescue worker, who belongs to an anti-junta group, told AFP news agency that women and children were among the dead. After recovering the bodies and transporting the injured, he estimated the number of dead at up to 100.
Videos circulating online showed bodies lying scattered between the ruins of houses. “We will save you if we hear you screaming,” a person can be heard in a video. “Please scream!” AFP could not verify the authenticity of these videos.
The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin condemned the attack and said on Twitter that it expected the military junta to end violence against the people immediately. UN Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the “attack by Myanmar’s armed forces in the strongest possible terms,” as his spokesman said.
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International organizations condemn the attack
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk said in Geneva that the military in Myanmar had once again disregarded its “clear legal obligations” to “ensure the protection of civilians during hostilities”.
“Unlawful airstrikes, killing and injuring civilians and destroying homes, are a hallmark of the Myanmar military, which is making despicable efforts to crush resistance and instill fear in the population,” Amnesty International’s Montse Ferrer said. She spoke of “disgusting tactics” and called on the international community to halt jet fuel supplies to the country and to do more to stop the junta’s attacks.
The junta seized power in the Southeast Asian country in February 2021 and overthrew the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, which was elected by a large majority. The junta violently suppressed the protests against the coup. In March, the military rulers dissolved Suu Kyi’s NLD party. Suu Kyi herself was arrested and sentenced to decades in prison.