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Airstrikes by Myanmar’s military on Tuesday killed 100 people, including many children, who were attending a ceremony held by opponents of the army’s rule, witnesses, members of local pro-democracy groups and independent media said.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that fighter jets dropped bombs directly on a crowd that had gathered at 8 a.m. local time for the opening of the local office of the country’s opposition movement outside Pazigyi village in Kanbalu town of Sagaing region. about 110 kilometers north of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city.
About half an hour later, a helicopter appeared and opened fire on the site, said the witness, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution by authorities. Initial reports put the death toll at around 50, but the number reported by independent media rose to around 100.
It is impossible to confirm details of the incident as reports are restricted by the military government.
There were no immediate reports of the attack in the state-controlled media. In past cases, the military government has said it did not use disproportionate force.
The military has increasingly used airstrikes to fight the widespread armed struggle against his government, 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.
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Witness describes the bombing, said the child was killed
About 150 people had gathered for the opening ceremony, and women and 20-30 children were among the dead, witnesses who spoke to AP said, adding that the dead also included leaders of anti-government armed groups and other opposition organizations.
“I was standing away from the crowd when my friend contacted me on the phone about the approach of fighter jets,” he said.
“The jet dropped a bomb directly into the crowd, and I jumped into a ditch nearby and hid. A few moments later, when I stood up and looked around, I saw people cut and dead in the smoke. The office building was destroyed by fire. About 30 people were injured. While the wounded were being transported, a helicopter came and shot more people. Now we are burying the bodies as quickly as possible.”
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In a video of the destroyed village seen by AP, survivors and spectators stumble through the attack area in the middle of a thick cloud of smoke, with only the skeletal frame of one building still standing in the distance.
The video could not be immediately verified but matched other descriptions of the scene. Some motorcycles remain intact, while others are reduced to frames or buried under tree branches.
“This terrorist military action is another example of the use of extreme violence against innocent civilians, a war crime,” the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) said in a statement. The NUG calls itself the legitimate government of the country, opposing the army.
The office opened Tuesday is part of an administrative network. 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.
Call to ban arms sales to Myanmar
In January, Myanmar’s supreme leader told the military that it must take firm action against those who oppose army rule.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said at a military parade on Armed Forces Day that those who condemned his government showed indifference to the violence inflicted by his enemies.
After peaceful demonstrations were dispersed with lethal force, many opponents of the military government took up arms, and a large part of the country is now in conflict.
The army has carried out massive attacks on the countryside, including burning villages and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. It has faced some of the toughest resistance in Sagaing, at the heart of Myanmar’s history.
The resistance forces have been able to prevent the military from taking strong control over large areas of the country, but they have great losses in weapons, especially in countering air strikes. The resistance forces were defenseless against airstrikes.
Critics of the military government advocate banning or restricting the sale of aviation fuel to Myanmar to cripple the military’s advantage in air power.
Many Western countries have imposed an arms embargo on the military government, and the United States and Britain recently imposed new sanctions targeting individuals and companies involved in supplying jet fuel to Myanmar.
Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement Tuesday that “the relentless airstrikes in Myanmar highlight the urgent need to suspend imports of aviation fuel. from the Myanmar Air Force.”
He also called on the UN Security Council to “encourage effective action to hold Myanmar’s military accountable, including by referring the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court.”
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