Myanmar air strike kills at least 19 high school students: armed group

A
Myanmar ethnic minority armed group said Saturday that a junta air strike
killed at least 19 students, including children, in western Rakhine state.
The Arakan Army (AA) is engaged in a fierce fight with Myanmar's ruling
military for control of Rakhine, where it has seized swaths of territory in the
past year.
The Rakhine
conflict is one element of the bloody chaos that has engulfed Myanmar since the
military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in a 2021 coup, sparking
a widespread armed uprising.
The AA posted a statement on
Telegram on Saturday saying the attack on two private high schools in Kyauktaw
township happened just after midnight Friday, killing 19 students between the
ages of 15 and 21 and wounding 22 more.
"We feel as sad as the victims' families for the death of the innocent
students," the statement said.
It blamed the junta for the
strike, but AFP's calls to the junta spokesman for comment about the incident
have not been answered.
Local media outlet Myanmar
Now reported that a junta warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs on a high school
as students slept.
In a statement, UNICEF condemned the "brutal attack", which it said
"adds to a pattern of increasingly devastating violence in Rakhine State,
with children and families paying the ultimate price".
AFP was unable to reach
people on the ground around Kyauktaw where internet and phone services are
patchy.
The military is struggling to
fight opposition to its rule on multiple fronts around Myanmar and it has been
regularly accused of using air and artillery strikes to hit civilian
communities.
















