Six children killed as Myanmar army helicopters fire on school

At least six children were killed and 17 wounded when army helicopters shot at a school in Myanmar, media reports and residents said on Monday, as the military said it opened fire because rebels were using the building to attack its forces, reports Reuters.

Myanmar has been gripped by violence since the army overthrew an elected government early last year. Opposition movements, some of them armed, have since emerged across the country, which the military has countered with lethal force.

Reuters could not independently verify details of the violence that took place on Friday in the village of Let Yet Kone in the central Sagaing region.

According to reports in the Mizzima and Irrawaddy news portals, army helicopters had opened fire on the school housed in a Buddhist monastery in the village. Some children were killed on the spot by the shooting, while others died after troops entered the village, the reports said. Two residents, who declined to be identified due to security worries, said by telephone the bodies were later transported by the military to a township 11 km (7 miles) away and buried.

Images posted on social media showed what appeared to be damage including bullet holes and blood stains at a school building.

In a statement, the military said the Kachin Independence Army, a rebel group, and the People’s Defence Force (PDF), an umbrella organisation of armed guerrillas that the junta calls “terrorists”, had been hiding in the monastery and using the village to transport weapons in the area.