Myanmar airstrike: In a shocking development, Myanmar’s military killed more than 100 people, including children, who were attending a ceremony held by opponents of army rule on Tuesday.
According to a member of a local pro-democracy group and independent media, more than 150 people gathered at Pazigyi village in Sagaing region’s Kanbalu township in order to open a local office of the country’s opposition movement.
Around 8 am, a fighter jet dropped bombs directly into a crowd of people, resulting in the killing of more than 100 people including over 30 children, an eye witness told the news agency the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
"We are cremating body quickly": Eyewitness
"I was standing a short distance from the crowd when a friend of mine contacted me on the phone about the approach of a fighter jet,” the witness said.
"The jet dropped bombs directly on the crowd, and I jumped into a nearby ditch and hid. A few moments later, when I stood up and looked around, I saw people cut to pieces 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 arrived and shot more people. We are now cremating the bodies quickly," he added.
Further, he added those killed also included leaders of locally formed anti-government armed groups and other opposition organisations.
More than 3,000 civilians killed in the last two years
Notably, the junta regime has been increasingly using airstrikes against its own people ever since it ousted the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi government in February 2021.
According to a report by the United Nations, more than 3,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed since then by security forces in the past two years.
UN condemn the attack
The United Nations strongly condemned the attack by the Myanmar armed forces and said those responsible must be brought to justice, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, stressing that the injured must receive medical treatment, which is “often a challenge in these circumstances.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “condemns all forms of violence and reaffirms the primacy of protection of civilians, in accordance with international humanitarian law and reiterates his call for the military to end the campaign of violence against the Myanmar population throughout the country” as called for by the UN Security Council in a resolution adopted last December, Dujarric said.
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