By AFP

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Myanmar's ruling junta on Wednesday confirmed that it carried out an air strike on a village in which dozens of people were reported killed, drawing condemnation from the United Nations and Western powers.

The official death toll from the Tuesday morning strike on the remote Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing region remains unclear, with at least 100 fatalities reported by BBC News, The Irrawaddy and Radio Free Asia.

An anonymous villager involved in rescue and recovery efforts at Pazi Gyi village said body parts had been strewn across the site of the attack and estimated the death toll to be higher than 120.

Following a coup in Myanmar that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in 2021, the country’s military crackdown on dissent and armed groups opposed to their rule has left more than 3,200 people dead, according to a local monitoring group.

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UN’s Turk ‘horrified’

UN Rights Chief Volker Turk said he was ‘horrified’ by the deadly air strike whose victims he said included schoolchildren performing dances, with the global body calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Assistant High Commissioner for Protection UNHCR, Volker Turk. PHOTO | AFP

On Wednesday, the villager told AFP it was difficult to identify the dead.

"We cannot identify anymore who is who among the dead because they all became pieces," he said.

The man estimated about 80 bodies had been cremated on Wednesday, with rescuers halting efforts to recover roughly 40 more bodies because they were afraid of more air strikes.

“Tuesday's strike saw military aircraft strafe Pazi Gyi, where scores of locals had gathered to mark the opening of a local defence force office connected to junta opponents,” a witness told AFP.

“One fighter jet and a helicopter were involved in the attack,” a security source told AFP.

The junta on Wednesday confirmed it had launched limited air strikes after receiving a tip-off from locals about the event.

It did not say how many were killed but insisted the military had tried to minimise harm to civilians.

"We heard that more people were killed because of big explosions from weapons and ammunitions. displayed at the opening event," a junta statement said.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun late on Tuesday said some of the dead were anti-coup fighters in uniform, though there could be some people with civilian clothes.

The spokesman went on to blame mines planted by the coup opponents People's Defence Force for some of the deaths.

Celebrations to be muted

Sagaing region, near the country's second-largest city of Mandalay, has put up some of the fiercest resistance to the military's rule with intense fighting raging there for months.

The attack came as Myanmar was preparing to mark the Buddhist new year Thingyan, which begins Thursday and traditionally involves public water fights. However, celebrations are expected to be muted.

"As the people of Myanmar celebrate their New Year, the EU is deeply shocked by reports of the latest atrocity committed by the military regime in Sagaing taking the lives of dozens of innocent civilians," EU Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Nabila Massrali said.

France's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the ‘abominable’ strike demonstrated the strategy of indiscriminate violence the Myanmar junta has inflicted on Myanmar's people for more than two years.

UN Chief Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and reiterated his call for the military to end the campaign of violence against the Myanmar population throughout the country, according to a statement from his spokesperson.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. PHOTO | KARIM JAAFAR | AFP

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Washington also denounced the ‘reprehensible’ attack.

"We strongly condemn the regime's air strikes and urge the regime to cease the violence," US State Department Counselor Derek Chollet tweeted.

Human Rights Watch Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson said the strike was likely to have a chilling effect across Myanmar society.

"I think this will cause greater fear amongst the people. I think in the future, communities will be reluctant to hold a mass gathering of any sort recognising that they could be bombed,” he told AFP.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Myanmar conflict tracker, the military has carried out 689 air and drone strike attacks since the coup.

Rights groups have called for the international community to further restrict Myanmar's access to aviation fuel in the wake of the attack.

But Bangkok-based security analyst Anthony Davis told AFP that demand was ‘divorced from reality’. 

"Russia is a firm ally of the junta and one of the world's largest oil exporters. Do we seriously believe Moscow will sit and watch the Myanmar Air Force being slowly grounded for a lack of aviation fuel?" he said.