BANGKOK: Myanmar’s military carried out a paraglider strike on a village that killed at least 24 people including children, and wounded more than 50 others, according to a member of a resistance group, villagers and media reports. The Monday night attack was carried out by a motorised paraglider, and targeted a village in the country’s central Sagaing region that was celebrating a Buddhist festival that included a rally calling for the release of political prisoners, the reports said.Myanmar is in a civil war that began after the army seized power in Feb 2021 from the elected govt of Aung San Suu Kyi. Much of the country, including the village of Bon To village where the attack took place, is under the control of resistance forces. The area is about 90 kilometers west of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. “The sickening reports emerging from the ground in central Myanmar following a nighttime attack late on Monday should serve as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection,” the human rights group Amnesty International said.A paraglider dropped two bombs at about 7.15pm, killing an estimated 20 to 40 people,cluding children, villagers and members of local political activist groups and armed anti-military groups, said the resistance fighter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The resistance fighter said an alert had been issued through mobile phones and walkie-talkies that had tracked the paraglider from army’s northwestern command in Monywa, about 25 kms north of Bon To village.
