Nyaung Kone village monastery in Pale Township after junta airstrikes on Tuesday. / Supplied
At least 11 civilians were killed and five wounded on Tuesday in two Myanmar junta airstrikes in Pale Township, Sagaing Region.
A jet dropped three bombs and shot at a monastery and houses in Nyaung Kone village, killing 10 villagers and injuring five, according to a Pale Township people’s administration spokesman.
“Three women and seven men, including a monk, were killed by the airstrike. Five villagers, including a two-year-old girl, were wounded,” he said.
A pagoda and two monastery buildings were damaged and 13 houses were destroyed.
Villager Shwe Mi and her six-year-old son took cover under their bed.
“We hid after we heard an explosion and repeated gunfire. I was worried for my daughter who was at school during the airstrike,” she said.
The pupils took refuge in another monastery and were unharmed.
“I was very scared and couldn’t sleep last night. I don’t want to hear aircraft again,” Shwe Mi said.
Some villagers have fled their homes since Tuesday’s airstrike, a resident said.
Villager Myo Min said his family escaped unharmed by hiding in a pagoda’s tunnel inside a monastery.
“I hid with my wife and eight-year-old son in a tunnel under the pagoda,” he said.
His neighbors’ houses were destroyed in the airstrike.
Nyuang Kone had over 300 homes. Villagers say there are no resistance camps near the village.
A female Kyar Si villager in Pale Township was killed in another airstrike on Tuesday.
Junta troops left the township at the weekend after raiding two villages, allegedly to feed allied Pyu Saw Htee militia villages.
Some names have been altered for safety reasons.
