Myanmar’s military allegedly struck a village medical clinic in the central Magway region, killing at least 11 people, including a doctor, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent days as the four-year-old civil war continues to rage.
The attack targeted Hnan Khar village in Gangaw township at around 8.40am on Saturday, Myanmar Now reported. The head doctor of the clinic, his pregnant wife and child were killed, as were several members of the staff and villagers living nearby.
The doctor was identified as Mya Soe Aung, 40, and his wife as Khaing Hnin Wai, 39.
“The entire home housing the clinic was obliterated in the explosion. There were body parts scattered all over the place. A neighbouring house was also reduced to ashes,” a witness to the attack told the outlet.
Pictures of the aftermath of the attack showed the wooden part of the makeshift hospital blown up and smoke rising from the debris.
Magway, on the banks of the Irrawaddy, was partly captured by forces opposed to the military junta after intense fighting nearly a month ago.
Myanmar has been engulfed in a civil war since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in a February 2021 coup.
The military has used lethal force to crack down on ethnic groups as well as peaceful demonstrations opposing junta rule, sparking armed conflict and violence in many parts of the country. But the military-ruled government has consistently denied carrying out attacks on civilians.
Myanmar’s border regions are home to numerous ethnic armed groups which have fought the military for autonomy and control over natural resources since independence in 1948. In recent years, they have seized wide swathes of territory in Chin, Rakhine and Shan states. Major cities such as Yangon and the capital Naypyidaw remain under junta control, though resistance activities have intensified even there.
According to the UN, at least 50,000 people have been killed and over two million displaced since the coup. The actual death toll is believed to be far higher as several regions remain cut off from major cities.
In January, at least 40 people, including children, were killed in a junta airstrike at the Kyauk Ni Maw village on Ramree Island, a township in Rakhine state currently held by the rebel Arakan Army. The bombing sparked a fire in the densely populated village that reportedly burned down at least 500 houses.
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