AT LEAST 40 people have been killed after a paraglider reportedly dropped two bombs on festivalgoers in Myanmar.
Children are among the casualties of the deadly overnight attack which is believed to have been conducted by the Myanmar military.
AFPPeople had gathered across Myanmar to take part in Thadingyut full moon festivals[/caption]
The attacks echo the chilling Nova music festival ambush conducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023 when terrorists invaded on paragliders to begin the massacre.
Hundreds of people gathered in central Myanmar’s Chaung U township on Monday evening for the Thadingyut full moon festival.
In a haunting seven-minute attack the military has been accused of dropping bombs onto the crowd, according to a member of the committee that organised the event.
Young children were among those killed with over 80 also left injured.
Witnesses reported being hit by shrapnel as the bombs exploded on impact as bodies fell to the ground.
One of the organisers of the event said: “Children were completely torn apart.”
Dozens of funerals were arranged on Tuesday for the victims but many bodies are still unable to be identified.
Officials are still said to be “collecting body parts” from the festival site, according to organisers.
Many of those at the event were protesting against the current regime in Myanmar after years of civil unrest.
Thousands have died and millions have been displaced since 2021, when the army forcefully seized power.
A bloody civil war has been ongoing since made up of armed resistance groups and ethnic militias.
The military has responded to these rebellious attacks by launching airstrikes on the perpetrators, report the BBC.
The festival strikes are believed to related to these as it was held in the highly contested Sagaing region which has been a key battleground in the war.
Large swaths of the township are under the control of volunteer militias, widely known as the People’s Defence Force (PDF), established after the coup.
They have been in a daily battle the country’s military government.
An official in the local PDF told BBC Burmese that they had received information about the incoming air attack during the mass gathering.
They desperately tried to warn the crowd to make them disperse but within minutes the motorised paraglider flew over the festival, they claimed.
Paramotors have become a constant form of attack for Myanmar’s military due to a lack of aircraft and helicopters.
It follows a string of punishing international sanctions which has limited the support and aid being sent to the country.
Human rights group Amnesty International released a scathing statement on the attack.
They said it must serve “as a gruesome wake-up call that civilians in Myanmar need urgent protection.”
Joe Freeman, Amnesty’s Myanmar researcher, added: “The international community may have forgotten about the conflict in Myanmar, but the Myanmar military is taking advantage of reduced scrutiny to carry out war crimes with impunity.”
Myanmar is due to hold general elections in December – marking the first vote since the 2021 coup.