Myanmar military airstrike kills 14 at Buddhist monastery: reports

At least 14 people were killed when a military airstrike hit a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar's central Sagaing region, an opposition group and local witnesses said Saturday.

Friday's attack, by the ruling military regime that seized power in a 2021 coup, is the latest deadly assault on pro-democracy forces in the Southeast Asian country's ongoing civil war.

The strike happened in Swel Le Oh village, Myaung township, in central Myanmar, said Nway Oo, a spokesman for an anti-government resistance group.

The village is about 75 kilometers (45 miles) west of Mandalay, the country's second largest city.

Nway Oo, from the Civil Defense and Security Organization of Myaung Township, or CDSOM, said the dead included three women and that 20 others were wounded.

The Associated Press spoke to a villager who confirmed the death toll and said that a military jet dropped two bombs 15 minutes apart.

More than 100 people were taking part in a weeklong meditation retreat to mark Buddhist Lent, the villager added.

AFP news agency cited Nway Oo Myaung, a pro-democracy rebel, as saying: "It wasn't a mistaken target; they intentionally attacked a monastery."