The horrifying aftermath of a 100-person junta airstrike in Myanmar left bodies and screaming people everywhere

After one of the bloodiest strikes since the junta’s takeover of power two years ago, relatives were still gathering the charred bodies and limbs of the victims murdered in a military airstrike on a village in central Myanmar on Wednesday.

As the military bombing occurred, an eyewitness who had been hiding in a tunnel during the assault recalled seeing children dying, mothers wailing, and dead piled up on the ground.

The Kyunhla activist group, which was present, estimates that at least 100 people, including women and children, were killed after Myanmar’s military junta bombarded Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing district on Tuesday. According to the group, the strike left at least 50 adults injured and 20 children dead.

Under condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, an eyewitness told CNN that about 300 people had gathered in Pazigyi Village early on Tuesday morning to celebrate the opening of a local administration office. For the occasion, which marked the beginning of the Thingyan New Year celebrations and supplied food and tea, families had travelled from neighbouring villages.

The region is not governed by the military junta, like much of Sagaing. Under the direction of the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), the new town office was being established for the people as a part of the anti-junta resistance.

The witness claimed, “We didn’t have any warning.” Most of the townspeople were present at the celebration, thus they were oblivious to the plane.

According to the eyewitness and local media, a junta aircraft blasted the ceremony’s host hamlet shortly before 8 a.m. Minutes afterwards, the witness claimed CNN, a Mi35 helicopter circled and opened fire on the settlement.

“We tried to search for anybody still alive when I arrived at the scene,” he claimed. Everything was awful. Motorbikes were being used to carry people who were dying. Females and children. Several people lost their heads, limbs, and hands. I noticed some skin on the road.

After the incident, the eyewitness reported seeing scores of bodies, including those that belonged to kids as young as five. In addition to a little child from his community, he claimed to have lost four family members in the strike.

He recalled witnessing a large number of crying and yelling adults arriving at the scene to look for their children.

He claimed that the junta jets hit the same location early that morning and again returned to shoot at it at around 5:30 p.m.

The eyewitness testimony matches news reports from the NUG and the local media, but CNN is unable to independently verify the incident.

Videos and pictures from the aftermath were sent to CNN by witnesses and a local activist group. They also feature people, some of which are charred and in bits, as well as wrecked homes, cars, and other objects.

According to Reuters, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the Myanmar junta, said that Pazigyi Village had been the target of an airstrike and claimed that any civilian casualties came as a result of those civilians being coerced into aiding “terrorists”

The NUG and the People’s Defense Force in the nation are both considered terrorist organisations by the military junta.

On the Myawaddy TV channel run by the military, Zaw Min Tun stated that the public administration office in Pazigyi village had its opening ceremony at 8 a.m. by the NUG (National Unity Government) and PDF (People’s Defense Force).

“We had started our assault on them. On that occasion, under attack, we were informed, PDF were killed. Our government is being resisted by them.

International condemnation of the strike was expressed, and a senior UN official claimed that the attack was influenced by the general lack of concern for the situation in Burma.

Tom Andrews, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, said that those who give the Myanmar military with weapons and those who are indifferent to their attacks on innocent civilians, such as today’s airstrike in Sagaing, are what allow them to do so.

How many children in Myanmar must perish before world leaders act decisively and jointly to halt the slaughter?

The US Department of State urged the regime to “stop the horrendous violence” in response to the airstrikes, stating that it was “very concerned.”

The regime’s disrespect for human life and its role for the severe political and humanitarian crises in Burma following the February 2021 coup, it added, using another term for Myanmar.

Since the military overthrew the democratically elected government and imprisoned its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, it has been just over two years. The junta regularly conducts airstrikes and ground assaults on what it refers to as “terrorist” sites in an effort to suppress opposition.

Schools, clinics, hospitals, and other civilian facilities were attacked, resulting in the deaths of civilians, particularly children. According to regional monitoring organisations, junta soldiers have set entire communities on fire and have displaced thousands of residents.

Myanmar is the scene of continuous clashes between the military and rebel factions. These rebel organisations, some of which have teamed up with long-standing ethnic militias in the nation, essentially rule over regions of the country that are beyond the junta’s control.

Despite mounting evidence, the military junta in Myanmar has consistently denied claims made by opposition parties and humanitarian organisations that it has committed mass executions, airstrikes, and war crimes against civilians in the areas where fighting has broken out.

The country is slipping from their grasp. Gaining progress is being lost. According to UN representative Andrews, conditions on the ground are more unstable than they’ve ever been. Because of this, they are utilising air power more frequently, which naturally results in greater and more civilian deaths.

According to local media Myanmar Today and The Irrawaddy, junta airstrikes on Monday killed nine people when bombs detonated at a school in Falam Township, a town in western Chin state.

According to a Facebook post from Thailand’s Tak Provincial Office’s public relations department, 8,000 refugees from southern Karen State crossed the border into Thailand last week to escape conflict in Myawaddy township.

Three monks were among the at least 22 fatalities at a monastery in the southern Shan state in March. Moreover, seven children were among the 13 individuals who died in an airstrike on a school in Sagaing in September.

“The situation in Burma is worse now,” according to the witness to the incident on Tuesday.

“People are dying just like dogs or cows,” Compared to the military’s arsenal, we don’t possess any weapons. “The global community must assist us,” he declared.