BANGKOK: A Myanmar ethnic minority armed group said Saturday that a junta air strike killed at least 19 students, including children, in western Rakhine state.
The Arakan Army (AA) is engaged in a fierce fight with Myanmar's ruling military for control of Rakhine, where it has seized swaths of territory in the past year.
The Rakhine conflict is one element of the bloody chaos that has engulfed Myanmar since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in a 2021 coup, sparking a widespread armed uprising.
The AA posted a statement on Telegram on Saturday saying the attack on two private high schools in Kyauktaw township happened just after midnight Friday, killing 19 students between the ages of 15 and 21 and wounding 22 more.
"We feel as sad as the victims' families for the death of the innocent students," the statement said.
It blamed the junta for the strike, but AFP's calls to the junta spokesman for comment about the incident have not been answered.
Local media outlet Myanmar Now reported that a junta warplane dropped two 500-pound bombs on a high school as students slept.
In a statement, UNICEF condemned the "brutal attack", which it said "adds to a pattern of increasingly devastating violence in Rakhine State, with children and families paying the ultimate price".
AFP was unable to reach people on the ground around Kyauktaw where internet and phone services are patchy.
The military is struggling to fight opposition to its rule on multiple fronts around Myanmar and it has been regularly accused of using air and artillery strikes to hit civilian communities.