Sawt Falasteen - Myanmar junta says it targeted rebels in deadly attack on protest

The Southeast Asian country has been engulfed in a civil war since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, prompting pro-democracy "People's Defence Forces" (PDF) to ally with ethnic minority armed groups against the junta.

A military strike on a festival and anti-junta protest in central Myanmar on Monday evening killed at least 25 people, and possibly as many as 43, including children, a local committee member told AFP on Thursday.

The woman, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the bombing on a crowd of hundreds gathered in Chaung U township for the Thadingyut full moon festival left some bodies unidentifiable.

The military accused "so-called PDF terrorist groups" of forcing people to join an anti-government protest and using them as "human shields" in Chaung U.

"According to a detailed report by a responsible citizen who was among those forced to do so, the security forces chose to attack as a counter-terrorism operation to minimise harm to innocent civilians," it said in a statement.

It said four "PDF terrorists" were killed in the attack, releasing photos of four men who several anti-coup campaign groups identified as their members.

A resident of Chaung U who attended the protest told AFP that people attempted to run when they noticed a motor-powered paraglider flying overhead.

The man, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the paraglider dropped two bombs and around 40 people were killed, some in front of him.

The "National Unity Government", a self-proclaimed administration in exile, said in a statement that at least three children were among those killed, including a two-year-old.

The Armed Conflict Location & Data monitoring group has tallied more than 85,000 fatalities reported by the media on all sides of the civil war.

Of those, nearly 3,400 were civilians killed by state forces in targeted air or drone strikes.

There is no official death toll for the war and estimates vary widely.

T.Khatib--SF-PST