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NAYPYIDAW: A 30-year-old protester was taking part in a gathering against Myanmar’s ruling junta on a festival day in the central region of Sagaing on Monday when he heard the distinctive noise of fan blades cutting through the air.

Minutes later, explosives were dropped by a motorized paraglider, also known as a paramotor.

“I was thrown away,” said the protester, asking not to be named for fear of retribution from the junta.

“Initially, I thought the whole lower part of my body had been severed. I touched it and I realized the legs are still there.”

At least 20 people were killed in the attack by the junta, according to the eyewitness, Amnesty International, the shadow National Unity Government and an armed resistance group in the area. It is also the latest instance of Myanmar’s well-armed military using paramotors as part of its widening range of aerial weaponry, including aircraft and drones, deployed in an expanding civil war.

A spokesperson for Myanmar’s junta did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The military has previously rejected accusations that it targets civilians. A spokesperson for the US State Department said it was deeply disturbed by reports of the attack. “We urge the military regime to cease its violence and bombing civilians, release all unjustly detained prisoners, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and begin genuine dialogue with opposition groups,” the spokesperson said.

The Southeast Asian nation has been gripped by protests and a nationwide armed rebellion since 2021 following the military’s ouster of an elected civilian government.

PARAMOTORS DEPLOYMENT ON THE RISE

The attack at Sagaing’s Chaung-U township took place just before 8 p.m. local time on Monday as local residents gathered in a field, said the eyewitness and a spokesman for a local anti-junta armed resistance group.

“The military has used paramotors to bomb this area approximately six times before this latest incident,” Ko Thant, an information officer for the Chaung-U Township People’s Defense Force, told Reuters.

The junta’s first recorded use of paramotors, which can seat up to three soldiers to drop bombs or fire at targets, was in December 2024 and they have since been deployed more widely, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. The military also used paramotors to carry out attacks in parts of Myanmar hit by a deadly earthquake in March, the United Nations said in April.

“Paramotors are typically deployed in areas of mixed control or where resistance groups have minimal equipment, such as lacking access to the 7.62 cartridges and weapons required to shoot them down,” ACLED Senior Analyst Su Mon said in a July report.

In some areas rebels have claimed to have shot down a junta paramotor, according to a statement issued by the Burma Revolution Rangers group in April. With frontlines stretching from the northern Kachin hills to the western coastal state of Rakhine, the junta is increasingly relying on aerial power, with 1,134 airstrikes between January and May, far higher than corresponding figures of 197 and 640 in 2023 and 2024, according to ACLED.

In the aftermath of the strike in Chaung-U township, the 30-year-old protester said he crawled into a nearby ditch and hid there until his friends pulled him out.

“This is mass murder,” he said, referring to the junta’s attack. “They are committing it openly.”

PARIS: France’s caretake prime minister on Wednesday said he saw a path to forming a new government but that the “final stretch” would be difficult, adding that it was possible France have a new premier in the next 48 hours.

Sebastien Lecornu, France’s fifth prime minister in two years, tendered his and his government’s resignation on Monday, just hours after announcing the cabinet line-up, making it the shortest-lived administration in modern France.

But at President Emmanuel Macron’s request, Lecornu has held further consultations with political leaders spanning the center left to center right in an effort to defuse the crisis and avoid snap parliamentary elections.

“I told the President of the Republic ... that I believe the situation allows for (him) to name a prime minister in the next 48 hours,” Lecornu told France 2 after briefing Macron on his talks.

Macron has this week faced calls to hold a snap parliamentary elections or resign, in particular from far-right and hardleft politicians but also from some in the political mainstream. Lecornu said his talks with other parties showed there was a majority in parliament against a snap election.

Markets have taken fright at the political paralysis in the euro zone’s second biggest economy, with investors already jittery over the country’s yawning budget deficit.

However, French assets saw some improvement on Wednesday after Lecornu expressed cautious optimism over the possibility of a deal in the morning, with Paris’ CAC 40 index up 1.1 percent on the day. The French benchmark remains one of Europe’s laggards in 2025.

Ahead of Lecornu’s remarks,

French bonds

outperformed their euro zone peers on the possibility that the country’s parliament may agree a budget by the end of the year.

It was unclear when Macron would announce any decisions.

Lecornu made clear he would not be the next prime minister. He declined to say who might be the next prime minister, or what their political leaning would likely be, stressing that this was up to Macron to decide.