Airstrike on a Buddhist monastery kills 14 in Myanmar: Report

An airstrike by Myanmar’s military on a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar’s central Sagaing region killed 14 people who were taking part in a week-long meditation retreat, an opposition group and a resident said. The attack is the latest in a series of frequent and deadly aerial strikes targeting armed pro-democracy forces and ethnic armed groups in the country. The strikes often cause civilian casualties. The attack occurred Friday at 9 a.m. in Swel Le Oh village in Myaung township, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) west of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, according to Nway Oo, a spokesperson for the Civil Defence and Security Organization of Myaung Township, or CDSOM. 
Nway Oo said 14 people, including three women, were killed and 20 others were wounded when a jet fighter dropped a bomb in the compound of the village’s monastery. Local residents said the monastery is currently sheltering nearly 70 flood victims in addition to the meditators. The attack follows a regime airstrike on Myaung Township on Wednesday that killed two volunteer teachers and injured 16 people. On Monday, four regime suicide drones targeted two flood-hit villages in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region, killing one villager and injuring 11, according to Ayadaw Township-People’s Defense Force group.