Myanmar airstrike: Why 500-pound bombs were dropped on schools in Rakhine State

At least 18 students, including children, were killed in western Myanmar's Rakhine State after a junta air strike hit two private schools, an ethnic minority armed group said on Saturday.

The Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority group currently engaged in intense fighting against the country's ruling military, alleged that two 500-pound bombs were dropped on the schools by a junta warplane as students (aged between 15 and 21) slept.

The incident occurred at around midnight on Friday in the embattled Kyauktaw township of Rakhine, wounding at least 22 students, an AFP report said.

“We feel as sad as the victims’ families for the death of the innocent students,” the AA said in its statement, as per the report.

The UN agency advocating for child rights (UNICEF) condemned the strike, calling it a "brutal attack" that was part of "a pattern of increasingly devastating violence in Rakhine State, with children and families paying the ultimate price".

Political instability has remained a constant in Myanmar since a 2021 military coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civil government, triggering a nationwide armed resistance against the junta that installed itself in power.

Rakhine State is a particularly contentious area, as the AA has been successful in recapturing several swathes of territory here, over the past year.

At least 12 people, including children, were killed in Mrauk-U, northern Rakhine State, in the junta's last such strike on August 25. 20 people were also injured in the attack, local media said.

Myanmar's ruling junta is currently faced by opposition elements on multiple fronts, as a result of which it has regularly been accused of using air and artillery strikes to hit civilian communities.