More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery

Kuwait Times

a day ago

BANGKOK: More than 20 civilians, including children, were killed after a recent air strike on a monastery in central Myanmar, an anti-junta fighter and a resident told AFP Saturday. Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military ousted a democratic government in 2021, and central Sagaing region has been particularly hard-hit, with the junta pummeling villages with air strikes targeting armed groups. The most recent occurred around 1 am Friday in Lin Ta Lu village when 'the monastery hall where internally displaced people were staying' was hit with an air strike, said an anti-junta fighter, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. He told AFP that 22 people were killed, including three children, while two were wounded and remained in critical condition at the hospital.
'They had thought it was safe to stay at a Buddhist monastery,' the anti-junta fighter said. 'But they were bombed anyway.' Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment. A local resident confirmed that the monastery hall was 'completely destroyed', adding that he saw some bodies loaded into a car and transported to a cemetery at dawn on Friday after the air strike.
He said when he went to the cemetery to take photos to help with identifying the dead, he counted 22 bodies. 'Many of the bodies had head wounds or were torn apart. It was sad to see,' said the resident, who also asked to remain anonymous. Sagaing region was the epicenter of a devastating magnitude-7.7 quake in March, which left nearly 3,800 people dead and tens of thousands homeless. After the quake, there was a purported truce between the junta and armed groups, but air strikes and fighting have continued, according to conflict monitors. In May, an air strike on a school in the village of Oe Htein Kwin in Sagaing killed 20 students and two teachers.
Meanwhile, ,ore than 500 civilians and soldiers fled conflict in Myanmar and crossed into Thailand on Saturday after an assault by ethnic fighters on a military base, the Thai army said. Myanmar has been mired in civil conflict since a military coup in 2021, with the junta battling a coalition of ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy resistance forces.
Saturday's attack by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) targeted a military base in Kayin state at around 3 pm local time (0800 GMT), Thailand's military said in a statement. 'The Myanmar soldiers attempted to resist and called for supporting firepower to defend their position but were ultimately unable to hold the line,' it said. One hundred Myanmar soldiers and 467 civilians had crossed into Thailand on Saturday, where Thai military and police disarmed them and provided treatment and humanitarian aid, officials said. Thai forces have ramped up patrols along the border in western Tak province to prevent what officials described as a potential 'violation of sovereignty by foreign armed forces'.
Saw Thamain Tun, a leader of the KNLA's political wing, confirmed there had been fighting near the border and said that joint forces had 'seized some front posts' from the army.
'Some (Myanmar troops) defected to our joint forces, but some of them ran into Thailand,' he told AFP.
Armed groups from the Karen ethnic minority have long challenged the military and now play a key role in resisting junta control over border zones. Myanmar's civil war has caused huge waves of population displacement, with 81,000 refugees or asylum seekers from the country currently living in Thailand, according to United Nations figures.—AFP