Bangkok, Sept 20. (dpa.GNA) – At least 49 people have been killed in a military airstrike near a Myanmar market, local media reported on Tuesday.
The airstrike on Monday injured at least 58 others in the town of Kyauktaw, in Rakhine state.
“There was a heavy airstrike on the market. The fighter jet dropped bombs three times on the market and the bridge,” resident Kyaw Moe told dpa.
Vendors, shoppers and pedestrians were killed in the attack, local media reported. Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh, is largely cut off from the rest of Myanmar due to the country’s long civil war.
The Myanmar military has increasingly been accused of targeting sites not directly connected to military operations. Rights groups and other observers have described such attacks as potential violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes.
The United League of Arakan and the Arakan Army, which oppose the Myanmar military and control the area, said in a statement that those responsible for the airstrike would face what they described as appropriate retaliatory action.
In early 2021, the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Since then, Myanmar has remained in prolonged conflict, characterised by widespread violence..
GNA