Burmese military airstrikes killed fourteen people Friday morning at a monastery in the center of the country, where civilians had gathered for a Buddhist meditation retreat.
The attack took place around 9 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. GMT) in Myaung Township, Central Sagaing region, about 70 kilometers west of Mandalay. Opposition fighters and a local rescuer confirmed the death toll to BBC Burmese.
All the victims were elderly, according to the rescuer, who added that the site was hit twice. Monks were also injured in the attack.
Pro-democracy rebel Nway Oo Myaung told AFP that the victims included eleven men and three women, aged between 50 and 70. Five of them came from the same village, the other nine from a neighboring canton.
Civilians had gathered there to mark Buddhist Lent with a meditation retreat. A second opposition fighter, whose name has not been released, testified that he participated in rescue operations when the aircraft returned to bomb a second time.
The Burmese army has not commented. It is regularly accused of carrying out strikes on public buildings, but maintains that it only targets legitimate military objectives.
Myanmar has been engulfed in civil war since the 2021 military coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi. The country has been under martial law ever since.
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