Myanmar, Apr 18 (V7N) –Myanmar’s military launched 26 airstrikes during the four-day Thingyan (New Year festival), killing 23 and injuring nearly 50 civilians across seven districts.

 

At least six monasteries, where Buddhists customarily congregate during the holiday, were the target of the bombings, reports The Irrawaddy.

Around 20 townships in the Magwe, Sagaing, Mandalay, and Bago regions as well as Rakhine, Chin, and Karen States reported airstrikes, from April 13 to 16.

Among the 17 people injured were novices (junior monks) and monks, while two adults and four children were killed.

However, three eastern Myanmar residents told AFP fighting has been raging for days around the junta-held towns of Kyondoe and Kawkareik, which sit on a highway leading to the western Thailand border town of Mae Sot.

On Thursday, a villager was killed and two children were injured when a regime warplane struck Kanni village and the adjoining Thayet Taw village once more.

According to the MLA, a 37-year-old pregnant woman and four other people, including two children, were killed when a Y12 junta jet fired bombs on Myauk Kanma Yite village in the same township on Wednesday.

The regime dropped bombs on seven communities in Kani Township, Sagaing Region, on Sunday using a Y12 aircraft, paramotors, and drones. Two novices and two villagers were slain in its attack on the monastery in Thamin Chan village.

In order to facilitate safe rescue efforts and funerals, the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) and a few influential ethnic armed groups have unilaterally declared ceasefires since the March 28 earthquake.

A few days later, the junta declared a 20-day earthquake pact that would begin on April 2.

However, they persisted in using artillery and airstrikes against people and resistance targets throughout the nation.

The NUG’s Human Rights Ministry said the regime conducted 92 shelling attacks and airstrikes across 12 of Myanmar’s 15 regions and states between March 28 and April 8, killing 72 people and injuring 91.

 

END/MSS/RH