18 killed in central Myanmar air strike

TABAYIN, Myanmar – Eighteen people were killed in an air strike on a town in central Myanmar, according to a local official, a rescue worker and two residents who spoke to AFP on Dec 6.

Myanmar has been rocked by civil war since the military snatched power in a 2021 coup, and its battles with numerous anti-coup fighters have brought frequent air strikes that often kill civilians.

Two bombs were dropped on Tabayin township in Sagaing region on the evening of Dec 5, with one hitting a busy tea shop, according to a local administration official.

He told AFP that 18 people were killed and 20 were wounded in the attacks.

“Deaths were high at the tea shop as it was crowded time,” he said.

All of the sources who spoke to AFP requested anonymity for their protection.

A rescue worker who arrived on the scene 15 minutes after the strike said seven people were killed on the spot and 11 others died later at hospital.

The tea shop – a traditional social hub in Myanmar – and around a dozen houses nearby were “totally destroyed”, he said.

A survivor said he was watching a televised boxing match in the tea shop when the bomb hit.

“As soon as I heard aircraft fly over, I got my body to the ground,” he said, adding that the sound from the blast was deafening.

He added: “I saw a big fire over my head... I was lucky. I returned home after that.”

A junta spokesman did not answer a call from an AFP reporter.

Funerals for those killed were held on Dec 6, with some victims’ faces covered by towels as they had been rendered unrecognisable, a local resident said.

“I feel very sad because I knew some of them very well,” she said.

A junta air strike in Sagaing in May killed 22 people, including 20 children, despite a purported ceasefire called after a devastating earthquake hit Myanmar. AFP