Bangkok, Jan 8 (EFE).- At least 16 people, including five children, were killed in Myanmar due to airstrikes by the army on a town in the northwestern Sagaing Region, the local media reported on Monday.
According to the PVTV news agency – controlled by the parallel government opposed to the military regime – and other local media, fighter jets dropped several bombs on Sunday morning near a secondary school and a church in Kanan town, around six kilometers from the Indian border.
The bombs killed 16 people and damaged both buildings along with at least 10 other houses in the neighborhood of the predominantly Christian town of the Chin ethnic group.
The nearby city of Khampat and its surroundings have been under the control of an alliance of ethnic minority forces and opponents of the military junta since November.
Clashes between the army and the militias have increased since late October, following an offensive launched by three powerful guerrillas forces called “Operation 1027.”
The conflict between the army and guerrillas has since spread to several areas of the north, west, center and south of the country, with the ing of more ethnic rebel groups and the pro-democracy defense forces.
The February 2021 military coup put an end to a decade of democratic transition in Myanmar and the elected government led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi has been detained since the uprising, exacerbating the conflict that the country has been experiencing for decades with the emergence of new anti-junta militias. EFE
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