Rights group accuses Myanmar of using fuel-air explosive

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar’s military of using an “enhanced blast” munition known as a fuel-air explosive in an airstrike that killed more than 160 people, including many children, at a ceremony held last month by opponents of army rule. It accused the military of dropping the weapon, also known as a thermobaric or vacuum bomb, on a crowd at the opening of a local office of the country’s resistance movement in central Sagaing region. The group says the attack caused “indiscriminate and disproportionate civilian casualties in violation of international humanitarian law, and was an apparent war crime.” Thermobaric weapons have been used most recently by Russian forces in the war in Ukraine.