Naypyidaw: At least 133 people were killed, including women and children in an airstrike by the military Junta on a village in Central Myanmar, CNN reported citing the human rights minister of the ousted shadow National Unity Government Aung Myo Min. The attack which took place on Tuesday in Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing region of the country is seen as one of the deadliest attacks since the junta seized power in a coup two years ago.
According to CNN, 50 people were hurt during the strike, the Kyunhla activist group said, which was there. At least 20 children were killed. Although there have been no additional strikes, military jets have continued to fly over the town, preventing first responders and medical professionals from reaching the attack site, according to Aung Myo Min, who told CNN. Sagaing region — near the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay — has put up some of the fiercest resistance to the military’s rule, with intense fighting raging there for months.
Reacting to the incident, UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday he was ‘horrified’ by the deadly air strikes, whose victims he said included schoolchildren performing dances, with the global body calling for those responsible to be brought to justice. Photos from the village being shared on social media showed more than a dozen burned and mutilated bodies, while videos showed a destroyed building, burned motorcycles and debris scattered over a wide area. Rescuers at the scene confirmed the authenticity of the images with The New York Times.
The apparent target of the attack was a celebration to mark the local resistance movement’s opening of an administration office. Only the charred frame of the building remained standing after the air raid, a video and photos showed. Myanmar’s military, which has battled armed ethnic groups for territorial control since soon after independence in 1948, has a long history of brutal attacks on civilians.
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