Death toll from airstrike near market in Myanmar's Rakhine state rises to 49

Wai Hun Aung, a senior rescue official in Rakhine, said the market was the region’s main wholesale centre, drawing traders and shoppers from across the state. "This is one of the most severe airstrikes in Rakhine,” he claimed. - Wai Hun Aung via AP

BANGKOK: The death toll from the airstrike carried out on Monday (Sept 28) by Myanmar’s military near a market in territory controlled by a powerful rebel group has risen to at least 49 people with 58 wounded, the group and a rescue official said.

The attack in western Rakhine state was the latest in a series of deadly airstrikes against pro-democracy resistance forces and ethnic armed groups across the country.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, triggering widespread opposition. After security forces suppressed peaceful protests with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, plunging large parts of the country into conflict.

Monday’s attack occurred in Kyauktaw township, about 340 kilometres west of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, according to the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic armed group based in Rakhine which controls Kyauktaw.

It was impossible to independently confirm details of the attack.

The Arakan Army said in a statement released early Tuesday that a fighter jet dropped two bombs near a local market around noon, killing vendors, shoppers and pedestrians.

The group said 58 other people were injured, 22 of them critically.