More than 20 civilians killed in Myanmar air strike on monastery: witnesses

BANGKOK (AFP): 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 said 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 1:00 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 said 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.