A military airstrike on a monastery where civilians were gathered for a meditation retreat marking Buddhist Lent killed 14 people, two rebel fighters said.
Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military staged a 2021 coup ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and detaining the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Over the past five years, more than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed across all sides as the military battles an array of pro-democracy and ethnic minority rebels.
The Friday airstrike hit a monastery hall around 9am in Myaung township of central Sagaing region, killing 11 men and three women, according to Nway Oo Myaung, a pro-democracy rebel who helped clear bodies.
“Older people had entered the meditation centre for three months to mark the period of Buddhist Lent, which roughly coincides with Myanmar’s rainy season,” he said on Friday.
“Those who were killed, their ages were between 50 and 70,” Myaung added. “It wasn’t a mistaken target, they intentionally attacked a monastery.”
It was not immediately possible to contact the Myanmar military for comment.
But a second local opposition fighter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday: “Five dead people were from our village and the other nine were from other villages.”
“While we were trying to rescue people, the aircraft came to bomb a second time,” he said.
UN investigators from the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar last week published a report accusing the military of “indiscriminate and intentional aerial attacks against civilians”.
Public buildings, most often monasteries and schools, are frequently the sites of reported airstrikes. — AFP
