Arakan News Agency | Exclusive
28 civilians, including children and women, were killed in an airstrike carried out by the Myanmar army using warplanes on a monastery housing internally displaced persons in the village of “Lintelo” in the city of Sagaing.
A source from the local resistance mentioned that the raid took place between midnight and 1 AM on Friday, where the planes dropped bombs twice on the monastery that was sheltering displaced individuals from conflict areas.
The source anticipated a rise in the death toll due to the large number of injured people, noting that most of the victims are displaced from the village of “Kyaw Ziya,” as reported by Khitt Thit Media.
He added that the injured suffer from severe injuries amidst a severe shortage of medicines and medical staff, which increases the difficulty of providing medical care to the injured.
He pointed out that rescue operations are still ongoing at the bombing site amid anxiety and fears of possible repeat airstrikes in the area, which lacks health and relief services.
This escalation comes amid the ongoing targeting by the People’s Defense Forces of Myanmar army sites on both banks of the Irrawaddy River, in an attempt to limit its attacks on their controlled areas in the regions of Sagaing and Mandalay.
During last June, the People’s Defense Forces and other resistance groups launched coordinated attacks on Myanmar military sites in the cities of “Shwebo” and “Mingun” in “Sagaing” state, resulting in 17 fatalities on both sides, in addition to two civilians.
Previously, the Myanmar army launched a series of raids targeting the city of “Kantbalu” in “Sagaing,” resulting in the death of at least 9 civilians, and 8,000 other people were compelled to flee their homes. Additionally, a civilian was killed, and two others were injured due to artillery shelling by the ruling military council’s forces in Myanmar on villages in the city of “Chaung-U.”
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military coup that overthrew the government in 2021, sparking conflict and civil war where civilians have fallen victim, resulting in the displacement of approximately 3.5 million people, along with the killing, injury, and arrest of tens of thousands. The United Nations estimated that around 20 million people, roughly a third of the population, will require humanitarian assistance in 2025.
