Bangkok, Sept 30:
At least 49 people were killed and 58 injured in an airstrike near a market in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, according to the Arakan Army and a rescue official.
The attack took place on Monday in Kyauktaw township, around 340 km west of Mandalay. The area is controlled by the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic armed group operating in Rakhine.
The Arakan Army said a fighter jet dropped two bombs near a local market around noon, killing vendors, shoppers and pedestrians. The group said the attack was part of continuing military operations in the region.
The incident is the latest in a series of deadly airstrikes in Myanmar amid the country’s continuing conflict between the military and pro-democracy resistance groups and ethnic armed organisations.
Myanmar has remained in turmoil since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Independent confirmation of the details of Monday’s attack was not immediately possible.