Myanmar Air Strike Toll Rises to Fifty as More Bodies Found
Rescuers recovered more dead through Tuesday from the market at Kyauktaw, taking the toll from Monday’s air strike to fifty killed and at least fifty-eight wounded. The rebel group that holds the town said the military “deliberately targeted densely populated markets, schools, civilians, and residential buildings through airstrikes”. It is the deadliest attack in Rakhine since a hospital bombing in December.
The figure has climbed all day, from thirty-three when the first wire copy moved to fifty by Tuesday afternoon, which is the ordinary arithmetic of a strike on a crowded market where the fire outlasts the bombing. Kyauktaw sits about 340 kilometres west of Mandalay in territory the Arakan Army has held since launching its offensive in November 2023, and the market was the region’s main wholesale centre, drawing traders from across the state. That is why a midday strike killed so many. The military, which took power in the 2021 coup, has not commented and has previously denied targeting civilians. The comparison the rebels reach for is the hospital bombing in December that killed at least thirty. Watch whether any outside body investigates, because nobody currently has access to establish what was hit or why.