At least 50 dead as Myanmar military launches air strikes on rebel group’s public event

‘They were bombarded by the air and shot at non-stop with machine guns’

File: Military supporter points a sharp object as he confronts anti-coup protesters during a military support rally in Yangon (REUTERS)

At least 50 civilians were killed in an air strike by the military targetting an event attended by opponents of its rule in central Myanmar on Tuesday.

The junta reportedly bombed people attending an office opening ceremony in Sagaing region's Kanbalu township. Most of the dead and injured were women and children.

"I saw the bodies of four to six children who had been blown about 100 feet," a local who didn’t want to be identified, told Radio Free Asia. “I saw bodies ripped open and burnt.”

Myanmar has been gripped by a bloody civil war since the junta led by general Min Aung Hlaing wrested power by overthrowing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a 2021 February coup.

The junta takeover plunged the country into an economic as well as security crisis, derailing decades of progressive reforms and inviting fresh international sanctions.

A member of the local People's Defence Force (PDF), an anti-junta militia, told Reuters that fighter jets had fired on a ceremony held to open their local office.

"So far, the exact number of casualties is still unknown. We cannot retrieve all the bodies yet," said the PDF member, who declined to be identified.

The strikes took place during the inauguration of a public administration office established by the National Unity Government (NUG) – Myanmar's pro-democracy government-in-exile.

Nay Zin Latt, the elected MP for Kantbalu Township, said several people died on the spot after a jet dropped two bombs and a Mi-35 attack helicopter fired over 200 shots from its machine guns.

There were more than 800 locals in attendance, he said.

“There was a group of local residents who were discussing how to manage social issues in the community,” he told Radio Free Asia. “They were bombarded by the air and shot at non-stop with machine guns. The shooting took about 15 minutes.”

Tuesday's incident is one of the deadliest among a string of air strikes since a jet attacked a concert in October, killing at least 50 civilians, local singers and members of an armed ethnic minority group in Kachin State.

The NUG condemned the attack, calling it "yet another example of (the military's) indiscriminate use of extreme force against civilians".

Nearly 1.2 million people have been internally displaced in Myanmar and over 70,000 have left the country in the two years since the coup, the UN estimates.

The Independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group that tracks killings and arrests, claims at least 2,940 civilians have been killed by the authorities. Another 17,572 have been arrested since 1 February 2021, with 13,763 of them still behind bars.