Junta airstrike on Rakhine school kills at least 22, mostly students

Myanmar’s military carried out an overnight airstrike on a private school in western Rakhine State early Thursday, killing at least 22 people—most of them high school students—and injuring 26 others, local sources said.A resident told Myanmar Now that the junta warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs into a Kyauktaw Township high school while the students were sleeping.“Most of the victims were Grade 11 and 12 students,” the resident said. “We are still unable to properly identify the bodies.”The Arakan Army (AA), a powerful ethnic armed group based in Rakhine State, also confirmed on Friday that the same airstrike killed at least 22 civilians. Local residents have condemned the airstrike on the school, attributing the attack as retaliation for the junta’s continued losses across Rakhine State to the AA.“They massacre civilians out of jealousy and bitterness for losing many battles,” a local resident told Myanmar Now.A female schoolteacher from Kyauktaw told Myanmar Now that the township is mourning the loss of young students. .“I cried myself,” the teacher said. “And I can’t begin to imagine the pain their parents are going through.”On Thursday, the junta launched an airstrike near the Zee Chaung Dam in Kyauktaw Township that caused no casualties. The attack came as the AA, which has seized control of nearly all of Rakhine State including Kyauktaw, faces a wave of junta airstrikes that have killed large numbers of civilians.The AA has steadily gained ground across western Myanmar over the past year, seizing control of most of Rakhine State, including key towns and transport routes. Its rapid advances have left the junta largely confined to air power and isolated bases, while boosting local support for the AA as it positions itself as the dominant force in the region. On August 25, junta airstrikes on the town of Mrauk-U left 12 civilians dead, including women and children, and wounded 20 others. Earlier on January 8, airstrikes on Kyauk Ni Maw Village in Ramree Township killed 26 people and injured 27 others. The attacks also destroyed 400 homes across three wards, according to data from the Humanitarian and Development Coordination Office (HDCO) of the United League of Arakan (ULA). The junta has increasingly relied on bombings in areas it has lost, including Rakhine, killing scores of civilians. Since midyear, its forces have mounted counter-offensives in central Myanmar and across northern Shan, Karenni, Kachin, and Karen states, using airstrikes, drones, paramotors, and artillery. In August, the military conducted 221 airstrikes nationwide, killing 284 civilians, according to a September 10 statement from the NUG’s Ministry of Human Rights. The junta also carried out 22 massacres that left up to 225 people dead, while in July alone it killed 125 civilians.

Junta airstrike on Rakhine school kills at least 22, mostly students

A warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs on a Kyauktaw Township high school as students slept, part of a wider campaign of air raids across Rakhine State

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