Arya News - The air force of Myanmar`s military junta killed at least 33 civilians and injured scores more after it bombed a hospital in rebel-held territory.
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Airstrikes by Myanmar"s military government killed at least 33 patients and staff and injured 76, many of them critically, at a public hospital in Rakhine State in the west of the country, ahead of elections on Dec. 28.
Two 500-pound bombs were dropped in the attack on Wednesday night on the town of Mrauk-U in a region controlled by ethnic Rakhine rebels of the Arakan Army, one of a number of minorities fighting the repressive regime in Naypyidaw.
Images and footage circulating online of the aftermath and on Thursday morning show dozens of bodies, fierce fires, a large crater, one building completely destroyed and a second gutted and trees uprooted by the blast.
Arakan Army spokesman Khine Thu Kha noted that the attack came on International Human Rights Day .
The CRPH government-in-exile, representing lawmakers of Aung San Suu Kyi"s National League for Democracy and other lawmakers ousted when the military seized power in a coup in 2021, said the attack was a criminal act by an illegitimate military dictatorship.
"We strongly condemn the inhumane actions of the murderous military junta that is trying to gain legitimacy through a sham election. This action only serves to further highlight the long-standing crimes committed by the military coup," CRPH said in a post on X .
"We deeply regret the loss of loved ones and the loss of lives in this brutal attack. We pray for the speedy recovery of the injured Rakhine people. We reiterate our commitment to continue working with all stakeholders to end the unjust military dictatorship and its violence as well as to bring peace in Myanmar."
In the run-up to elections that the military junta is heralding as an "off-ramp" to fighting that has raged since 2021, airstrikes by its forces on rebel-held areas vowing to block the ballot have escalated sharply , hitting civilian targets, including schools, medical facilities, monasteries and displacement camps.
More than 100,000 homes have been razed in arson attacks, 3.6 million people displaced, with almost 22 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations, which said the junta had created "a humanitarian catastrophe," exploiting an earthquake that hit the country in March to attack victims and gain a military advantage.
The U.N. said the elections would not be free or fair, accusing the regime of a cynical bid to create a veneer of legitimacy.
"Having driven Myanmar into a devastating humanitarian and human rights crisis and failed to consolidate control over the country, the junta is making a desperate bid to manufacture a facade of legitimacy by holding sham elections," Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in a report in October.
"The polls will be neither free nor fair. A free and fair election is not possible when opposition leaders are arrested, detained, tortured or executed; when it is illegal to criticize the junta or the election; when journalists are in prison for having reported the truth."
U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Turk pleaded with the Trump administration not to go through with plans to end Temporary Protected Status , shielding people from Myanmar from being deported.
Speaking at the Nov. 28 press briefing in Geneva, Turk said the idea that any state would forcibly return Myanmar nationals who had fled the country in fear against the backdrop of "very serious human rights violations" was appalling.
In October, at least 24 anti-government protesters were killed and 47 were injured in Chaung-U, 200 miles northwest of Naypyidaw, after they were bombed by paragliders as they held a candle-lit vigil demanding the release of arbitrarily detained prisoners, opposing military conscription and this month"s election.
Sagaing, a quasi self-governing region in the center of the country, was targeted because it is a resistance hub, with People"s Defense Force volunteer militias running the local administration.