Corps found after military airstrike on Magway, Myanmar: report | Refugee News

Of the nine victims found, two were members of a self-defense force against the coup and the rest were civilians, including children.

The bodies of at least nine people have been found in the central region of Myanmar as a result of an alleged airstrike by military forces, according to a report that most of the victims were civilians, including two children.

Myanmar Now news website reported on Tuesday that the bodies were found by search and rescue team members who arrived outside the village of Hnan Khar in Gangaw district of Magway region after the attack.

Only two of the victims were members of a self-defense force against the coup, while the rest were villagers, the report added.

News of the discovery came from nearby residents and a spokesman for the anti-coup militia told AFP news agency that military troops have deployed a helicopter to make a helicopter while the military government is fighting to break resistance to the coup.

Myanmar Now, however, said three helicopters were responsible for the deadly airstrike.

Another local told AFP that the military used five helicopters in the attack and that the troops fired from the air at a village of about 6,000 people.

Anti-coup militias have sprung up across Myanmar to retreat after the February coup; the military government has dealt with dissent, according to a local monitoring group, which has killed more than 1,300 people.

These “People’s Defense Forces” (PDF) have shocked the army with their effectiveness, analysts told AFP, leading General Min Aung Hlaing’s forces to a bloody blockade.

‘Credible and evil’

On Friday, military troops entered a PDF meeting for the first time in the Sagaing region adjacent to Magway using helicopters and airliners, residents told AFP.

A military spokesman for Zaw Min Tun confirmed that the military had used helicopters in an attack, without saying how they were used.

He said he had no death toll.

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The military typically calls for helicopters and airstrikes when ground troops are fighting, analysts say.

In May, the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic rebel group in the far north of the country, said it had shot down a military helicopter in heavy fighting near the town of Momau.

Earlier this month, the United States and the United Nations condemned the military for calling Washington a “credible and malicious” report of 11 villages, including children.

A statement from local media and residents said the soldiers had arrested 11 people in the village of Dontaw in the Sagaing region a day earlier in a military convoy after mine and bomb attacks.

The military has denied the allegations.

Separately, the military is engaged in an ongoing armed conflict with Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group opposed to the Karen coup.

Fighting has forced more than 3,900 refugees from Myanmar across the Thai border, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

UNHCR called on Thailand on Monday to allow “urgent access” to refugees.

Thousands of refugees are also believed to be stranded on the Myanmar border, and the KNU warned on Tuesday that the military could also attack those civilians with airstrikes.

The UN has called on the UN Security Council to call an emergency meeting and identify a “no-fly zone” to protect civilians.