5 killed in Myanmar military's helicopter attack on country's Sagaing region

At least 15 people were killed this week in Myanmar military's attacks in the country's Sagaing region including four siblings aged 5-26 and one woman who died when a missile fired from a helicopter struck their home, a media report said citing sources.

The two Mi-35 attack helicopters on January 4 launched six rockets and fired machine guns into Gahe village, part of Indaw township in Sagaing, a northwestern region that has been a hotbed of resistance to the military regime that overthrew Myanmar's elected government nearly a year ago, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA).

It was the first time that the Myanmar military targeted Gahe village by using heavy weapons, RFA quoted a local resident as saying.

She also said that the village was a peaceful place and the military attacked it for no reason.

"We used to go out and watch the planes when they passed by, but now we would not dare to do anything like that," said the resident, adding, "One of the helicopters shot explosive rockets at us and the other used a machine gun."

Six rockets were fired into the village and out of those five exploded. The helicopter attack killed four siblings aged 5, 9, 13 and 26, and a 30-year-old woman.

Nearly 800 people from Gahe and the surrounding villages have been displaced due to fighting between the military and local militias, called People's Defence Forces (PDF), reported RFA citing sources.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor