BANGKOK: An airstrike led by the Myanmar military resulted in the death of ten civilians in a village, reports from locals and media stated on Wednesday.
The country has been in the grip of widespread conflict since the 2021 coup, with the junta involved in battles against ethnic rebels and numerous "People's Defence Forces" throughout the nation, the AFP reported.
Myanmar's military has been accused by human rights organisations of carrying out extrajudicial killings, destroying villages, and utilising airstrikes as a means of collective punishment against its adversaries.
A military aircraft, on Tuesday afternoon, dropped three bombs on Nyaung Kone village in the northern Sagaing region, as confirmed by Ko Zaw Tun, an anti-coup fighter from the village.
Ten people were killed and eight wounded, he said.
"There was no fighting, but they came to bomb the village," he told AFP, adding 11 houses had been destroyed in the attack.
A resident of Nyaung Kone also told AFP that ten people had been killed in the strike.
He and other locals had cremated the dead later that evening, he said, asking not to use his name due to fear of reprisal.
"We did not know what their (the military's) next plan is. So, we just held funerals for them as soon as we could," he said.
BBC Burmese and other local media also reported the air strikes, with some outlets saying nine people had been killed.
Images published by local media showed people working to douse smouldering debris and ash, and a large building in ruins.
AFP digital verification reporters confirmed the images had not appeared online before Tuesday.
More than two years after launching its coup, the military is struggling to crush resistance to its rule.
Battling fierce opposition on the ground, experts say it is resorting to artillery strikes and air power.
The military carried out more than 300 air strikes in the last year, the United Nations said in March.
Sagaing has emerged as a hotspot of anti-junta resistance.
In April, the military bombed a gathering in Sagaing that media and locals said killed about 170 people, sparking renewed global condemnation of the isolated junta.
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