On Tuesday, Myanmar’s military regime continued its relentless airstrike campaign by bombing a large gathering in rebel-held territory, killing at least 100 people in the junta’s deadliest attack since seizing power in a coup more than two years ago.
According to an emergency worker on the scene and an official of the shadow National Unity Government, which considers itself to be Myanmar’s true government, at least 30 children were killed in the attack in the Sagaing Region. It was expected that the death toll would rise.
Byar Kyi, a soldier with a local resistance unit who was assisting with body recovery at the site, said, “This is a war crime”.
“The location of the attack was not a military target”, he added.
Rescue workers described a horrifying scene in Pazigyi Village in the southern Sagaing Region, where body parts were lying around after a military jet and helicopter bombed and strafed the largely civilian gathering.
Photos shared on social media from the village showed more than a dozen burned and mutilated bodies, while videos showed a destroyed building, burned motorcycles, and debris scattered across a large area.
The apparent target of the attack was a celebration marking the opening of an administration office for the local resistance movement. A video and photos showed that only the charred frame of the building remained standing after the airstrike.
Myanmar’s military, which has fought armed ethnic groups for territorial control since shortly after the country’s independence in 1948, has a long history of atrocities against civilians.
Since the coup, pro-democracy forces have joined forces with some armed ethnic groups in a national campaign to depose the military, resulting in the most unified resistance movement the military has faced.
The military has stepped up its strategy of conducting lethal air raids and attacking civilians, including the killing of monks and civilians at a monastery last month, as the rebel forces have become increasingly better armed.
Military jets attacked a concert in Kachin State in October, killing at least 80 people, including musicians who were performing onstage at the time.
A significant portion of the Sagaing Region, which is in Myanmar’s northwest and borders India, is a rebel stronghold where the military’s ground forces have had trouble gaining ground.
The National Unity Government’s minister for human rights, Aung Myo Min, said that the dictatorship had boosted its military spending and that airstrikes had increased.
“By spilling their blood, the people of Myanmar are warning the world about the brutal war crimes of the military”, he added.
According to an emergency worker on the scene, at least 100 individuals were verified deceased, with many more still missing. Mr. Aung Myo Min, who was not there, stated that 53 intact bodies had been discovered and that recovery attempts were ongoing.
Following the attack on Pazigyi Village, human rights activists renewed their appeal for a prohibition on the sale of aviation fuel to the dictatorship.
Mr. Byar Kyi, a member of the Kyun Hla Underground Force, a local armed group, said survivors told him the attack was carried out by a jet fighter and a combat chopper. Despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Russia has been a significant supplier of such weapons to the junta.
He claimed that most of the dead in Pazigyi Village were civilians, however, a few of them were local resistance fighters who had attended the celebration.
He declared, “In the pile of dead bodies, there are many women and children”.
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