Myanmar’s terror from above

First come the drones to pinpoint targets. Then the regime’s jets and helicopters strike, coming at night or early morning—firing cannons or rockets, or dropping shock wave bombs, unguided missiles, and cluster bombs into unprotected villages and towns. 

With little more than caves, trenches dug under wooden houses, and prayers to offer the local population some sense of security, the human toll has been devastating. 

The evidence of the regime’s air war against civilians is damning. Nyan Linn Thit Analytical, an independent research organisation documenting human rights violations in Myanmar, estimates that as of August last year, the military had ordered 902 airstrikes since staging its coup in February 2021, killing 686 civilians and wounding another 458. In the same period, 26 hospitals, 54 schools and 86 religious buildings were destroyed by aerial attacks, according to the group’s findings.

The records of the UN. . .