A Myanmar military airstrike on a village controlled by pro-democracy parties opposed to the military in the country’s northwest has killed at least 17 civilians, including nine children, local residents and human rights groups said on Sunday (7/1).
They said the morning airstrike in Kanan village, Khampat town in the Sagaing region, just south of the Indian border, also wounded around 20 people.
Myanmar was hit by violence that began after the army overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with deadly violence, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and much of the country is now engulfed in conflict.
The country’s independent online media and the BBC Myanmar language service reported the airstrike on Sunday (7/1), but the military government denied responsibility. The government claimed that the news was fake spread by Khit Thit Media, an independent online news service sympathetic to the anti-military resistance.
The state-run MRTV television report in a news broadcast Sunday (7/1) evening quoted an unnamed official from the area as saying no planes had flown in the area on Sunday morning.
The military government in the past two years has stepped up air strikes against two enemies: the armed pro-democracy People’s Defense Forces, and ethnic minority guerrilla groups that have fought for greater autonomy for decades. The two groups sometimes carry out joint operations against the army.
Responding to accusations of a series of abuses, the military government has frequently accused pro-democracy forces in the region of carrying out violent terror campaigns. But analysts at the UN and non-governmental organizations have gathered credible evidence of large-scale human rights violations committed by the army, including the burning of entire villages and the displacement of nearly 2 million people that has sparked a humanitarian crisis.
People’s Liberation Army troops are fighting against soldiers of the Myanmar military junta in the Sagaing Region, November 23, 2023. (Photo: Stringer/Reuters)
The Sagaing region, near the Indian border, has been a bastion of armed resistance against the army. A district capital and two smaller towns, including Khampat, have in recent months been captured by a coalition of resistance forces and the Kachin Independence Army, one of the more powerful ethnic rebel groups.
A local resident who helped with the rescue efforts told the Associated Press news agency on Sunday that a fighter jet dropped three bombs on the village of Kanan, on the outskirts of Khampat, about 280 kilometers northwest of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. The bombing killed 17 civilians who were in buildings near the village school.
The population in the city of Khampat mostly comes from the Chin ethnic minority, the majority of whom are Christians, generally Baptists. Myanmar is mostly Buddhist, which is the majority in Burma. The ruling military self-identified nationalist Buddhists displayed a hostile attitude towards non-Burmese and non-Buddhist populations. These populations are mostly found in the border regions where most of the fighting is currently taking place.
About 10 houses near the school were destroyed by the bomb, said the resident, who asked not to be named for fear of arrest by the military.
He shed light on the possibility of an attack, saying that a ceremony was scheduled for Sunday to mark the completion of combat training for new members of the resistance forces at another school in the village. The event may have been the target of the attack. He added that the bombing may have been the result of information provided by a military informant.
Another resident, who also declined to be named for security reasons, said nine of the people killed were children and 20 others were injured. He also provided the AP news agency with photos of the aftermath of the attack, including dead and injured people and damaged buildings.
Salai Mang Hre Lian, program manager of the Chin Human Rights Organization, also confirmed the number of casualties and alleged that this was a deliberate attack by the military on civilians and children at the school. (my/lt)