Churches, temples and monasteries regularly hit by airstrikes in Myanmar, activists say

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — A study issued Tuesday by researchers collecting evidence of war crimes in Myanmar supported reports that air strikes by the military government damaged churches in the Buddhist-dominated country’s sole Christian-majority state. The 10 reported attacks on churches in the western state of Chin examined by the researchers are part of a broader assault on religious communities across the war-torn nation, other religious and human rights workers said. Myanmar sank into civil war after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Since then, resistance fighters from the Buddhist Burman ethnic majority have joined forces with long-oppressed ethnic minorities, some with substantial Christian populations.