Myanmar’s military strikes village in glider raid
According to many eyewitnesses, the Myanmar army launched a paraglider attack on a village, killing at least 24 people, including children, and wounding more than 50 people.
The attack on Monday night was carried out by a motorized paraglider and targeted a village in the central Sagaing region.
According to reports, the village was in the middle of celebrations for a Buddhist festival and a rally calling for the release of political prisoners held by Myanmar’s military government.
Myanmar is in a civil war that began after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
More than 100 people from Bon To and surrounding villages gathered at the village primary school campus on Monday evening for an oil lamp lighting ceremony to mark the end of the Buddhist Lent and call for the release of political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, said a member of a local resistance group who attended the event.
A motorized paraglider dropped two bombs around 7:15 p.m. local time, killing an estimated 20 to 40 people, including children, villagers and members of local political activist groups and armed anti-military groups, the resistance fighter told The Associated Press.
He added that more than 50 people, including himself, were injured.
“Sickening reports following a nighttime attack in central Myanmar late on Monday should serve as a dire wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection,” human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. he said.
The resistance fighter said an alert was sounded from the army’s northwestern military command in Monywa, about 25 km north of Bon To, through a network of mobile phones and walkie-talkies that tracked the paraglider.
A resident who attended Monday’s ceremony said the crowd began to disperse after hearing the news of the paraglider’s approach, but the parachute arrived earlier than expected and dropped bombs while people were still at school.
A local resident who helped rescue efforts after the attack said at least 24 people were known to have died, but the death toll could be higher as family members of the victims and rescue workers worked independently to collect the bodies.
Both eyewitnesses said the paraglider returned to the scene around 23:00 and dropped two more bombs without causing further casualties.
The army did not accept that there was an attack on the region.
More than 7,300 people are estimated to have been killed by security forces since the military came to power in 2021, according to figures compiled by non-governmental organisations.
Myanmar’s military also uses Chinese- and Russian-made fighter jets and helicopters, but has increased its use of low-tech powered paragliders since late last year, partly to save money.
Resistance forces lack effective defense against any air attack.
