An airstrike conducted by the military of Myanmar near a market located in the territory under the control of a prominent rebel group resulted in the death of a minimum of 33 individuals and left 36 others injured on Monday, as reported by the group and a rescue official. The incident, which took place in western Rakhine state, is part of a series of lethal airstrikes directed towards pro-democracy resistance forces and ethnic armed factions throughout the nation.
Myanmar has been in a state of unrest since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021, sparking widespread opposition. Following the use of deadly force by security forces to suppress peaceful demonstrations, many opponents of the military regime resorted to taking up arms, leading to intensified conflicts in various regions of the country.
The attack on Monday unfolded in Kyauktaw township, situated about 340 kilometers west of Mandalay, the second-largest city in Myanmar. The Arakan Army, a potent ethnic armed group based in Rakhine and in control of Kyauktaw, revealed that a fighter jet dropped two bombs close to a local market around midday, resulting in the deaths of 33 individuals, including vendors, shoppers, and pedestrians.
Wai Hun Aung, a senior rescue official in Rakhine, verified the casualties to The Associated Press, citing accounts from rescue workers present at the scene. He highlighted that the market served as the primary wholesale hub in the region, attracting traders and shoppers from across the state, describing the incident as one of the most severe airstrikes in Rakhine.
Images and videos circulated on social media depicted buildings engulfed in flames, vehicles damaged, and sections of a nearby bridge destroyed in the aftermath of the attack. The military refrained from immediate comments on the assault, reiterating its stance that it targets only legitimate military objectives and accusing resistance groups of engaging in terrorist activities.
The Arakan Army operates as the highly trained and well-equipped military arm of a movement advocating for autonomy for Rakhine’s ethnic minority from the central government of Myanmar. The group initiated an offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and has since seized a strategically significant regional military headquarters along with 14 out of the state’s 17 townships. As fighting in Rakhine intensified, the military imposed stringent restrictions on trade routes, exacerbating food shortages in the region.
In a separate incident in December, a military airstrike on a hospital in Rakhine’s Mrauk-U township resulted in the death of at least 34 individuals and left 80 others wounded. Rakhine has also been a hotspot for clashes between the military and insurgents, triggering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh and other destinations since 2017. Myanmar, historically known as Burma, does not formally acknowledge the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 recognized ethnic groups, as neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia seek to repatriate some of the displaced refugees.
