Three women among 14 dead after military airstrike hits Myanmar monastery in Sagaing region
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Three women among 14 dead after military airstrike hits Myanmar monastery in Sagaing region")
Myanmar military airstrike on civilian. Photograph: (X/@ViralVolT1)
The strike hit the monastery hall around 9:00 am (0230 GMT) Friday (August 22) in Myaung township, central Sagaing region, killing 11 men and three women, said Nway Oo Myaung, a pro-democracy fighter who helped recover the bodies.
A Myanmar military airstrike on a monastery hosting over 100 civilians for a meditation retreat during Buddhist Lent left 14 people dead, according to two rebel fighters who saw the aftermath. The strike hit the monastery hall around 9:00 am (0230 GMT) Friday (August 22) in Myaung township, central Sagaing region, killing 11 men and three women, said Nway Oo Myaung, a pro-democracy fighter who helped recover the bodies.
"Five dead people were from our village and the other nine were from other villages," said a second local opposition fighter on Saturday.
Several media reports confirmed that the plane had dropped two bombs on the village 15 minutes apart, where over 100 people were staying in and around the monastery for a weeklong retreat for Buddhist Lent. Following the incident, the military did not immediately comment; however, it has previously claimed to be attacking legitimate targets.
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Civil war in Myanmar
Myanmar has been gripped by near-nationwide civil war since the military ousted the elected government in February 2021. The junta's violent crackdown on peaceful protests pushed many opponents of military rule to take up arms.
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The forces resisting the government form a fragmented mix of ethnically and politically distinct armed groups, some dating back decades. Aung San Suu Kyi, the 81-year-old Nobel laureate and pro-democracy figure who held the role of state counsellor, equivalent to prime minister, has remained in detention since the 2021 takeover, and was shifted to house arrest in April.
Resistance forces and ethnic armies now hold an estimated 42 per cent of the country, against the military government's 21 per cent. Myaung township sits in Sagaing region, a longtime stronghold of anti-junta resistance.
The UN-backed Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) reported in August that it had recorded a marked rise in air attacks in the run-up to elections held in December and January, a trend that has continued since. Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs pushed back against the IIMM's findings, saying strikes target only "terrorists" and that security forces exercise maximum restraint to avoid harming civilians.
