At least 18 people, most of them students, have been killed in an air strike on two private schools by Myanmar’s military in a village in the country’s western Rakhine state, according to an armed group and the local media.

Khaing Thukha, spokesperson for the Arakan Army (AA) that controls the area, told The Associated Press late on Friday that a jet fighter dropped two bombs on Pyinnyar Pan Khinn and A Myin Thit Private High School in the Thayet Thapin village in Kyauktaw township.

He said most of the victims were “17- to 18-year-old students from the private schools”. The situation in the village could not be independently confirmed, with access to the internet and cellphone service in the area mostly cut off.

“We feel as sad as the victims’ families for the death of the innocent stud

See Full Page