Dozens killed in Myanmar airstrike

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Dozens of people have been killed in an airstrike by Myanmar’s ruling military junta, according to media reports. More than 50 people were killed and dozens 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.

Particularly in the region, there is fierce resistance to the military junta in power in Myanmar. The State Department and the UN have condemned the attack. A junta spokesman said late Tuesday evening that there was an opening ceremony for a People’s Defense Forces office in the town of Pazi Gyi. “We attacked this place.” The spokesman did not give an exact number of deaths.

“Scream please!”

Some of the dead were uniformed fighters, but there may also be “some people in civilian clothes”. The spokesman also blamed the 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 wounded, he estimated the number of dead at up to 100.

Videos circulating online showed bodies scattered among the ruins of homes. “We will save you when we hear you scream,” one person can be heard in a video. “Scream please!” AFP was unable to verify the authenticity of these videos.

Violence against people must be stopped immediately

The foreign ministry in Berlin condemned the attack and said on Twitter that it expects 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,” ​​his spokesman said.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk said in Geneva that the military in Myanmar had again ignored its “clear legal obligations” to “protect civilians during hostilities”.

The junta seized power in the Southeast Asian country in February 2021 and overthrew the overwhelmingly elected government of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta violently suppressed protests against the coup. In March, the military rulers disbanded Suu Kyi’s NLD party. Suu Kyi herself was arrested and sentenced to decades in prison. (AFP)

Source: Blick