Junta denies deadly Rakhine hospital strike

Myanmar's military junta yesterday denied killing civilians in a hospital air strike that left more than 30 people dead.

A military jet bombed late Wednesday the general hospital of Mrauk-U in western Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, two aid workers said.

"Those killed or injured were not civilians, but terrorists and their supporters," said an article in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM).

The UN on Thursday demanded an investigation.

Health workers and patients were killed, and "hospital infrastructure was severely damaged, with operating rooms and the main inpatient ward completely destroyed," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X.

Rakhine state is controlled almost in its entirety by the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic minority separatist force active long before the military toppled the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The separatist force said in a statement that 33 people were killed and 76 wounded in the strike.