Jakarta, hitclubapk3 Indonesia
—
Myanmar military junta
denied killing civilians in an airstrike on Wednesday (10/12) that hit a hospital and killed more than 30 people.
Two aid workers said a military jet bombed the Mrauk-U public hospital in western Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh, on Wednesday evening.
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“Those who were killed or injured were not civilians, but terrorists and their supporters,” said an article in state media Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) as reported by AFP on Saturday (13/12).
The junta has stepped up air strikes every year since the country’s civil war began, conflict monitors say, after seizing power in a 2021 coup that ended a decade-long democratic experiment.
The denial came after the United Nations said the attack killed civilians.The United Nations on Thursday (11/12) demanded an investigation, saying the attack could be considered a war crime.
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“Health workers and patients were killed, and hospital infrastructure was badly damaged, with operating rooms and main inpatient wards completely destroyed,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in X.
Rakhine state is almost entirely controlled by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority separatist force that was active long before the military overthrew the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The separatist force said in a statement that 33 people were killed and 76 injured in the attack.
The People’s Defense Forces (PDF) have also risen to oppose the military coup four years ago.
“The junta carried out the necessary security measures and launched a Counter-Terrorism Operation on December 10 against buildings used as bases by AA and PDF terrorists,” the GNLM said.
(afp/chri)
