Families were still discovering the charred bodies and limbs of victims killed in a military airstrike on a village in central Myanmar Wednesday, a day after one of the bloodiest strikes since the junta seized power in a coup two years ago.

An eyewitness, who sheltered in a tunnel during the bombing, described a sight of misery as he neared the site of the military bombardment – of children dying, women wailing, and dead heaped on the ground.

At least 100 people, including women and children, were killed as Myanmar’s military junta attacked Kanbalu township in the central Sagaing area on Tuesday, according to the Kyunhla activist organisation, which was at the scene. The group reported at least 20 children were killed in the strike and 50 individuals injured.

About 300 people had gathered in Pazigyi Village early on Tuesday morning to celebrate the opening of a local administration office, an eyewitness told CNN on the condition of anonymity because he fears retaliation. Family had travelled from neighbouring villages for the gathering, where tea and food was served and which coincided with the start of the Thingyan New Year celebrations.

Like much of Sagaing, the area is not under the administration of the military junta. The new town office was being launched under the authority of the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), for the people, as part of the anti-junta struggle.

“We didn’t have any warning,” the eyewitness claimed. “Most of the townspeople were inside the event, so they didn’t notice the jet.”

Soon before 8 a.m., a junta aircraft struck the area where the celebration was being conducted, the eyewitness and local media claimed. An Mi35 helicopter then circled and fired on the village minutes later, the eyewitness told CNN.

“When I arrived at the scene we tried to seek for anybody still alive,” he stated. “Everything was dreadful. Persons were dying (as they were being transported) on motorbikes. women and children. Several people lost their hands, limbs, and heads. I noticed flesh on the highway.

During the incident, the witness claimed to have seen dozens of bodies, including some who were as young as five years old. He claimed that during the strike, he lost four family members, including a little child from his community.

He described seeing several people arriving at the area to look for their children while crying and yelling.

The junta jets came again around 5:30 p.m. and fired at the same location they had bombed earlier, he claimed.

Although CNN is unable to independently confirm the incident, the eyewitness’s story corroborates with accounts from the NUG and the local media.

Witnesses and a local activist group provided CNN with videos and photographs from the aftermath, which also feature bodies—some of which are charred and in pieces—as well as wrecked homes, cars, and other objects.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a spokesman for the Myanmar junta, confirmed the airstrike on Pazigyi Village and said civilian casualties were caused by them being forced to aid “terrorists,” according to Reuters.

The NUG and the nation’s resistance organisations known as the People’s Defense Force have been labelled as terrorist organisations by the junta.

On the military’s Myawaddy TV channel, Zaw Min Tun stated that “at 8 a.m. the NUG (National Unity Government) and PDF (People’s Defense Force) staged an inauguration ceremony of the public administration office at Pazigyi village.“

“We had started the assault against them. We were informed that under attack at that event, PDF were slain. They’re against the government.

The attack was denounced on a global scale, and a top UN official claimed that the strike was made possible by the lack of attention given to the situation in Burma.

The world’s indifference and those who provide the Myanmar military with weaponry enable their attacks on defenceless civilians, including today’s airstrike in Sagaing, according to Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma.

How many Myanmar children must perish before world leaders act decisively and jointly to halt the slaughter?

In response to the airstrikes, the US Department of State expressed its “great concern” and urged the regime to “stop the heinous violence.”

Using a different name for Myanmar, it said: “These savage acts further emphasise the regime’s contempt for human life and its responsibility for the severe political and humanitarian crises in Burma following the February 2021 coup.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the democratically elected government, has been imprisoned for just over two years since the military overthrew it. The junta frequently launches airstrikes and ground assaults on what it refers to as “terrorist” sites in an effort to suppress opposition.

The attacks targeted schools, clinics, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, particularly children. Local monitoring organisations claim that junta soldiers have set entire communities on fire and that the attacks have resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians.

Daily battles between the military and rebel groups take place all over Burma. These rebel organisations, some of which have allied themselves with long-standing ethnic militias in the nation, essentially rule over regions of the country that are beyond the junta’s control.

The military junta of Myanmar has frequently denied these allegations despite mounting evidence. Opposition groups and humanitarian organisations have accused the military of carrying out mass executions, airstrikes, and war crimes against civilians in the areas where fighting has raged.

They are loosing power over the nation. They are slipping behind. According to the UN’s Andrews, the situation on the ground is significantly more precarious than it has ever been. They are utilising air power more frequently as a result, which, of course, results in an increase in the number of civilian deaths.

According to local media Myanmar Today and The Irrawaddy, junta aircraft on Monday struck a town in western Chin state’s Falam Township, dropping bombs on a school and killing nine people.

In order to escape conflict in Myawaddy township, 8,000 refugees from southern Karen state crossed the border into Thailand last week, according to a statement from Thailand’s Tak provincial office public relations department posted on Facebook.

At least 22 people—three of them monks—were slain in March at a monastery in the southern Shan state. And in September, at least 13 people, including seven children, were murdered in a military airstrike on a school in Sagaing.

Witness to the incident on Tuesday claimed that “the situation in Burma is worse now.”

Like dogs or cows, people are dying. We don’t own any weaponry comparable to those the military is equipped with. The world community must assist us, he continued.

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