Myanmar junta airstrikes on school and hospital leave dozens dead, injured

At least 22 people were killed and dozens injured by regime airstrikes targeting a school and a hospital in resistance-held areas over the weekend, according to locals and anti-junta forces. On Sunday, an assault on the village of Singut in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Township left at least 12 resistance fighters and six civilians dead, sources said. Three children, including a five-month-old infant, were among those killed when junta warplanes targeted the village school, which was being used as a base for local resistance forces, a defence team member told Myanmar Now on Monday. “Only a few of the bodies we recovered were intact. The rest were just body parts and scattered flesh,” he said. A junta fighter jet dropped two bombs on the school, which was then hit by multiple rounds of gunfire from an Mi-35 combat helicopter, he added. “We lost four comrades from the township defence team and eight from the village defence team. Six civilians also lost their lives,” a spokesperson for the Myingyan Township’s People Defence Team said. According to the spokesperson, two of the children who were killed were from a family of four that was at the school to get a token for medical treatment. “Civilians are usually not allowed to enter our base, but they knew people there and had come to get the token,” the spokesperson said, adding that all four family members died in the attack. A child who often played near the school and a man who cooked for the resistance fighters were also killed, he added. A day earlier, a pair of airstrikes targeting a hospital in Kyaukme, a town in northern Shan State under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), killed at least three people, local residents said. “Two nurses and a patient were killed and 20 others were injured by the airstrikes,” a volunteer from Kyaukme told Myanmar Now. According to locals, a junta warplane dropped two bombs on the hospital—one landing behind its outpatient department and the other in front of the hospital compound. “All of the victims were civilians. The hospital gate was guarded by TNLA fighters, but there was no base inside,” a local man said. At least five of the 20 injured people were healthcare workers and the rest were patients, according to volunteers. “Three people sustained critical injuries. Two of them have been transferred to Lashio Hospital,” a volunteer said. Kyaukme has been under TNLA control since August of last year. Since then, many residents of the town have fled due to the threat of airstrikes. At least six civilians were killed in the town last November when a junta warplane dropped bombs near a local monastery. The military regime also carried out an aerial assault near a crowded market and a district court in Kyaukme at around 2pm on Monday, killing at least one man and injuring three others. A video posted on Facebook showed local rescuers pulling injured people from the rubble. No further information was available at the time of reporting.

Myanmar junta airstrikes on school and hospital leave dozens dead, injured

Children and healthcare workers were among at least 21 people killed in two separate attacks that took place over the weekend

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