AA: Myanmar air strike kills 19 high school students
News Desk
At least 19 students, including children, were killed in a Myanmar junta air strike in western Rakhine state, the Arakan Army (AA) said on Saturday.
The Arakan Army (AA), which has seized swaths of territory in Rakhine over the past year, is engaged in fierce fighting with Myanmar’s ruling military for control of the region.
The Rakhine conflict is part of the wider 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 targeted two private high schools in Kyauktaw township just after midnight on Friday. The strike killed 19 students aged between 15 and 21 and wounded 22 more.
“We feel as sad as the victims’ families for the death of the innocent students,” the statement said.
The group blamed the junta for the attack. AFP’s calls to the junta spokesman for comment on the incident went unanswered.
Local media outlet Myanmar Now reported that a junta warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs on a high school while students slept.
In a statement, Unicef condemned the “brutal attack,” saying it “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 remain patchy.
The military continues to struggle against opposition across multiple fronts in Myanmar and has regularly been accused of using air and artillery strikes against civilian communities.
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