Myanmar junta air strike on hospital kills 31, dozens wounded
An on-site aid worker says a military jet bombed Mrauk-U’s general hospital amid the junta’s escalating pre-election offensive, leaving at least 31 dead and 68 injured.
A Myanmar military air strike killed more than 30 people at a hospital, an on-site aid worker said on Thursday, as the junta wages a withering offensive ahead of elections beginning this month.
The junta has increased air strikes year-on-year since the start of Myanmar's civil war, conflict monitors say, after snatching power in a 2021 putsch ending a decade-long democratic experiment.
The military has set polls starting December 28 - touting the vote as an off-ramp to fighting - but rebels have pledged to block it from territory they control, which the junta is battling to claw back.
A military jet bombed the general hospital of Mrauk-U in western Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, on Wednesday evening, said on-site aid worker Wai Hun Aung.
"The situation is very terrible," he said. "As for now, we can confirm there are 31 deaths and we think there will be more deaths. Also there are 68 wounded and will be more and more."
At least 20 shrouded bodies were visible on the ground outside the hospital overnight.
A junta spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.
Rakhine state is controlled almost in its entirety by the Arakan Army (AA) - an ethnic minority force active long before the military staged a coup toppling the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
A statement by the AA's health department on Wednesday night said 10 hospital patients were "killed on the spot" in the air strike at around 9:00 pm (1430 GMT).
Powerful adversary
The AA has proven a powerful adversary for the junta and now controls all but three of Rakhine's 17 townships, according to conflict monitors.
But the group's ambitions are largely limited to their Rakhine homeland, hemmed in by the coast of the Bay of Bengal and jungle-clad mountains to the north.
The group has also been accused of atrocities, including against the mostly Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority from the region.
Meanwhile, the military has blockaded Rakhine, contributing to a humanitarian crisis which has seen "a dramatic rise in hunger and malnutrition", the World Food Programme said in August.