Representational.
Bangkok: An airstrike by Myanmar's military destroyed a hospital in an area controlled by a leading rebel armed force, killing 34 patients and medical staff, according to a rescue worker and independent media reports on Thursday, the Associated Press reported.
About 80 other people were injured in the attack on Wednesday night on the general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine.
The military, which took over Myanmar's government in 2021 and has been fighting ethnic militias and armed resistance forces since then, has not mentioned any attack in the area.
Wai Hun Aung, a senior official for rescue services in Rakhine, told The Associated Press that a jet fighter dropped two bombs at 9.13 pm, with one hitting the hospital's recovery ward and the other landing near the hospital's main building.
He said he arrived at the hospital early on Thursday to provide assistance and recorded the deaths of 17 women and 17 men. He said that most of the hospital building was destroyed by the bombs, and taxis and motorbikes near the hospital were also damaged.
Rakhine-based online media posted photos and videos showing damaged buildings and debris, including medical equipment.
The hospital has been the main source of health care for people in Rakhine, where most hospitals have closed because of Myanmar's civil war, said Wai Hun Aung.
It was reopened after doctors gathered in Mrauk-U to provide much-needed medical services.
Mrauk-U, located 530 kilometres northwest of Yangon, the country's largest city, was captured by the Arakan Army in February 2024.
The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar's central government. It began its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023 and has seized a strategically important regional army headquarters and 14 of Rakhine's 17 townships.