JAKARTA - Reportedly 23 people died including four children as a result of the attack on monasteries in the village of the Sagaing region, Myanmar.
Hlaing Bwa, Head of the Sagaing District People's Administration, said the monasteries in Lintalu village were attacked in the early hours of Friday.
He and a local resident described the attack as an air strike by the State Administration Council, Myanmar's ruling military junta. The junta spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The Mona housed about 200 people displaced by fighting between the army and nearby pro-democracy forces, Hlaing Bwa told Reuters on Friday, July 11.
A spokesman for the parallel civilian National Unity Government, which tracks airstrikes, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Myanmar has been hit by conflict since the military suppressed protests against the 2021 coup that toppled the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Days after an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hit Sagaing on March 28, the government announced a temporary ceasefire to provide humanitarian assistance and help rebuild the region, following similar steps from armed anti-junta groups.
However, the military continues to launch airstrikes and artillery on rebel-controlled areas, including areas that have been destroyed by the earthquake, which killed nearly 3,700 people.
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In May, the NUG accused the military junta of killing 17 students in an airstrike that hit a school in the city of Depayin, also in Sagaing and close to the epicenter of the earthquake.
Phoee Kaine, a resident of Lintalu who lived near the monastery, told Reuters, in addition to the 23 confirmed deaths, many more were injured in the attack.
"We are evacuating patients who need immediate medical treatment as part of our rescue efforts and assistance," said Phoe Kaine.
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