At least 49 people were killed and 58 wounded in an airstrike carried out by Myanmar’s military in an area controlled by a rebel militia on Monday, the group and a rescue official said.
The attack in western Rakhine state was the latest in a series of airstrikes against resistance forces and ethnic armed groups across the country.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, triggering widespread opposition.
After security forces suppressed peaceful protests with lethal force, many opponents of the military’s rule took up arms, plunging large parts of the country into conflict.
Monday’s attack occurred in Kyauktaw township, 340km west of Mandalay, the second-largest city in the country, according to the Arakan Army, a Rakhine-based ethnic armed group that holds Kyauktaw.
It was not possible to independently confirm details of the airstrike.
The Arakan Army said in a statement released on Tuesday that a fighter jet dropped two bombs near a local market around noon, killing vendors, shoppers and pedestrians
The group said 58 people were injured, at least 22 of them critically.
The statement said the group "will take effective retaliatory measures soon against the individuals and organisations directly responsible for the attacks involving deliberate airstrikes that have caused mass casualties”.
Wai Hun Aung, a senior rescue official in Rakhine, confirmed the casualties to the Associated Press, citing rescue workers at the scene.
He said the market was the region’s main wholesale centre, drawing traders and shoppers from near and far.
“This is one of the most severe airstrikes in Rakhine,” he said.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed burning buildings, damaged vehicles and a destroyed bridge nearby.
The military didn’t immediately comment on the attack. It has previously insisted that it strikes only legitimate military targets and has accused resistance groups of terrorism.
The Arakan Army is the well-armed military arm of a movement demanding autonomy for Rakhine’s ethnic minority from Myanmar’s central government. It launched an offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and went on to capture a strategically important regional military headquarters and 14 of the state’s 17 townships.
The military has enforced severe restrictions on trade routes since fighting intensified in Rakhine, worsening food shortages.
In December, a military airstrike on a hospital in Rakhine’s Mrauk-U township killed 34 people and wounded 80.
