Myanmar military acknowledges airstrike on hospital, claims armed opposition groups used it as base

BANGKOK: Myanmar’s military on Saturday (Dec 13) acknowledged there was an airstrike on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine, which a local rescuer and media reports said killed over 30 people, including patients, medical workers and children.

In a statement published by the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the military’s information office said armed groups, including the ethnic Arakan Army and the People’s Defense Force, pro-democracy militias formed after the army takeover in 2021, used the hospital as their base.

It said the military carried out necessary security measures and launched a counter-terrorism operation against the hospital buildings on Wednesday. It added that those killed or injured were armed members of opposition groups and their supporters but not civilians.

A senior official for rescue services in Rakhine told the Associated Press on Thursday that 34 people, including patients and medical staff, were killed and about 80 others injured when an army jet fighter dropped two bombs on the general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the Arakan Army, or AA. He said the hospital building was destroyed by the bombs on Wednesday night.

The United Nations on Thursday said in a statement that the attack was part of a broader pattern of strikes causing harm to civilians and civilian objects that are devastating communities across the country.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said in its statement on X that he was “appalled” by the attack on the hospital that provided primary healthcare, saying it will disrupt access to healthcare for entire communities.

Mrauk-U, located 530km northwest of Yangon, the country’s largest city, was captured by the Arakan Army in February 2024.