At least 17 killed in junta air strike on Myanmar school, reports say
At least 17 people have been killed in an air strike by Myanmar's military junta on a village in the central Sagaing region, according to several reports on Monday.
The death toll from the Monday morning bombing on Ohe Htein Twin village in the region's Tabayin township, also known as Depayin, reported by independent media in Myanmar ranged from 17 to more than 20.
Others reported that the morning attack killed at least 22 students and two teachers and wounded dozens of others.
A member of the White Depeyin People's Defence Force resistance group fighting against military rule said a fighter jet dropped a bomb directly onto the school, where students from primary to high school levels were studying.
The area is about 115 kilometres northwest of Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city.
The resistance fighter, who rushed to the site of the attack to help the victims, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of being arrested by the military.
He said that 20 students and two teachers were killed in the attack on the school, which is operated by the country's pro-democracy movement, and some 50 others were wounded. Three nearby houses were also damaged.
Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the opposition's National Unity Government, said he received the same information on the number of casualties and warned the death toll could rise.
The organisation is the main opposition group coordinating resistance to military rule.
Sagaing region, near the border with India, has been a stronghold of armed resistance and the military in recent years has stepped up air strikes against the local pro-democracy People's Defence Forces.
The resistance has no effective defence against air attacks.
Neither the military government nor state-controlled media have released any information about the reported air strike.
The junta has increasingly used air strikes to counter a widespread armed resistance against its rule, which began in February 2021 when it seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
More than 6,600 civilians are estimated to have been killed by security forces since then, according to figures compiled by non-governmental organisations.
In September 2022, aerial attacks by the military's helicopters against a school and village in Let Yet Kone village in the same township killed at least 13 people, including seven children.
Air strikes in April 2023 killed as many as 160 people, including children, who were attending a ceremony held by opponents of army rule outside Pazigyi village in Sagaing region's Kanbalu township.
Air strikes in Myanmar garnered increased attention recently when numerous reports deemed credible by the United Nations and human rights groups said that they continued to be carried out in the wake of the devastating 28 March earthquake, after which the military and resistance groups declared ceasefires to facilitate relief efforts.
US President Donald Trump has indicated he is ready to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a present from the ruling family of Qatar during his upcoming trip to the Middle East this week.
As US officials say the jet could be converted into a potential presidential aircraft — the famed Air Force One, questions arose over what would constitute an immensely expensive gift donated from a foreign government to a serving official.
While the Qatari government said a final decision hasn't yet been reached, Trump defended the idea as a fiscally smart move in a post shared on his Truth Social platform Sunday.
'So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a gift, free of charge, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, top dollar, for the plane,' said Trump, adding 'anybody can do that.'
According to ABC News, the US president would use the aircraft as his plane until right before he leaves office in January 2029 — when ownership would be transferred to the foundation overseeing his yet-to-be-built presidential library.
Qatar's media attaché, Ali Al-Ansari, said that a decision had not yet been reached, while 'the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments" of Qatar's Ministry of Defence and its US counterpart.
According to ABC, officials from the Trump administration have prepared an analysis which demonstrates that accepting the plane would be legal.
However, the US Constitution's Emoluments Clause bars anyone in government office from accepting any present, emolument, office or title from any 'king, prince, or foreign state' without congressional consent.
The US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer poked fun at Trump's 'America first' political slogan, stating 'nothing says 'America First' like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar."
'It's not just bribery, it's premium foreign influence with extra legroom,' added Schumer.
Other lawmakers also expressed dismay online, noting that an aircraft being offered by a foreign government could present security risks if used by a US president.
The existing planes used as Air Force One are heavily modified with survivability capabilities for the president for a range of contingencies, including radiation shielding and antimissile technology.
They also include a variety of communications systems which allow the president to remain in contact with the military and issue orders from anywhere in the world.
Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said such a gift would be 'unprecedented".
'The totality of gifts given to a president over their term doesn't get close to this level,' Libowitz said.
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"One had no face and one's body was cut. They were cuddling their books," the 43-year-old told AFP, speaking under a pseudonym. "My heart is broken. I value my children more than my own life." The Monday morning air strike on the village of Oe Htein Kwin in Myanmar's Sagaing region killed 20 students and two teachers, according to a school staff member, a local administrator, and other witnesses. It occurred during a purported truce -- to ease aid after March's devastating magnitude-7.7 quake -- between the junta, which seized power in 2021, and guerrilla fighters. The junta denounced reports of the air strike as "fabricated news". But the aquamarine school building -- where just under 300 pupils were enrolled -- was shattered with the hallmarks of a blast as villagers roamed the site on Monday afternoon and Tuesday. The corrugated roof was blown away with holes punched in the brickwork, an abandoned ball under pockmarked walls smeared with what appeared to be blood. An exercise book lay open, showing geometry notes. Colourful unclaimed bags, some stuffed with blood-stained books, had been piled outside under a pole flying a Myanmar flag. The community buried the victims on the same day as the air strike, scooping earth out of the hard-packed ground. Over shrouded bodies, the children's finest clothing had been draped on, and families wailed before onlookers covered the dead in earth with their bare hands. "The children are innocent. They cannot even hold their pen or pencils firmly," said Ko Min. "Why do they attack these children?" Myanmar's exiled self-declared "National Unity Government" said the youngest victim was seven-years-old. 'Dark like night' Myanmar has been riven by civil war since the military deposed the civilian leadership in 2021, with the junta suffering stinging losses to a myriad of anti-coup guerrillas and long-active ethnic armed groups. Conflict monitors say the junta has turned to increasing air strikes with Russian-supplied jets as it struggles to fend off its opponents on the ground. The military had pledged a ceasefire throughout May "to continue the rebuilding and rehabilitation process" after the March 28 quake that killed nearly 3,800 people. But around 100 kilometres (62 miles) northwest of the epicentre, a 22-year-old volunteer teacher said the hush of his classroom was shattered Monday by the airstrike locals said hit around 10:00 am. "It became dark immediately like night. We could not see each other," said the teacher. "We could not breathe because of the smell of gunpowder." He carried a wounded pupil away to safety but turned back to see another girl in shock running from the blast, holding her own severed hand. "That gave me goosebumps," he said. "She wasn't even crying." His fellow teacher said the jet had struck after circling above as children played outside, in the area which is beyond the control of junta troops. Locals and officials said dozens more children were also wounded, some in critical condition. "These schoolchildren are the next generation of our country," said a 41-year-old local administration official. "If these schoolchildren are killed, our country's future is also killed." 'Never seen such a scene' Rushing to the schoolhouse moments after the detonation, 27-year-old villager Ko Kyaw bypassed bodies and ran straight to those who might still be alive -- some with missing arms and legs. But some died as he worked. "I couldn't help everybody," he said, also speaking under a pseudonym. "I have never seen that kind of scene." UN chief Antonio Guterres has said he is "deeply alarmed" by reports of the strike. News of the aerial bombardment of hospitals and monasteries is now commonplace in Myanmar. But for the mother of Ko Min's two children -- a boy aged 13 and a nine-year-old girl who died on the school steps -- the grief is anything but commonplace. "I want to ask the military if my children have done anything wrong," she said. "Come to us and fight us if you are brave, the children are innocent."
