Myanmar: Military airstrike kills 80 at Kachin ethnic minority concert

Bangkok:  Air strikes by Myanmar’s military killed as many as 80 people, including singers and musicians, attending an anniversary celebration of the Kachin ethnic minority’s main political organisation, members of the group and a rescue worker said on Monday.
The reported attack comes three days before Southeast Asian foreign ministers are to hold a special meeting in Indonesia to discuss widening violence in Myanmar.
The number of casualties at Sunday night’s celebration by the Kachin Independence Organisation in the northern state of Kachin appeared to be the most in a single air attack since the military seized power in February last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Initial reports put the death toll at around 60, but later tallies raised it to about 80.
A junta airstrike on a concert in Kachin state kills about 50 people. The concert was staged to celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the ethnic Kachin Independence Army. Citizen video shows the airstrike’s aftermath. Myanmar’s junta denied targeting civilians. pic.twitter.com/qPkJHIAsiP — Radio Free Asia (@RadioFreeAsia) October 24, 2022 It was impossible to independently confirm details of the incident, though media sympathetic to the Kachin posted videos showing what was said to be the attack’s aftermath, with splintered and flattened wooden structures.
The military government’s information office confirmed in a statement late Monday that there was an attack on what it described as the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army’s 9th Brigade, calling it a necessary operation in response to terrorist acts carried out by the Kachin group.