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Myanmar’s ruling military junta on Saturday rejected claims that civilians were killed in an air strike on a hospital, despite reports that the attack left more than 30 people dead.
According to two aid workers, a military aircraft carried out the strike late on Wednesday, dropping bombs on the general hospital in Mrauk-U, a town in western Rakhine state near the border with Bangladesh.
“Those killed or injured were not civilians, but terrorists and their supporters,” said an article in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM).
Since the outbreak of Myanmar’s civil war, the ruling junta has sharply expanded its use of air power, with conflict monitors reporting a steady rise in air strikes each year following the 2021 coup that ended a decade of democratic rule.
The United Nations on Thursday called for a full investigation, warning that the incident may amount to a war crime.
Health workers and patients were among those killed, while “hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward completely destroyed,” World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
Rakhine state is now almost entirely under the control of the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority separatist group that has been active for years, even before the military overthrew the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
In a statement, the AA said the strike killed 33 people and left 76 others injured.
Alongside the AA, People’s Defence Forces (PDF) emerged to resist the military takeover four years ago.
State media outlet GNLM quoted the junta as saying it “carried out necessary security measures and launched a Counter-Terrorism Operation on 10 December against the buildings being used as a base by AA and PDF terrorists.”
