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BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar's military on Saturday acknowledged there was an airstrike on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine, which a local rescuer and media reports said killed over 30 people, including patients, medical workers and children.

In a statement published by the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the military's information office said armed groups, including the ethnic Arakan Army and the People's Defense Force, pro-democracy militias formed after the army takeover in 2021, used the hospital as their base.

It said the military carried out necessary security measures and launched a counter-terrorism operation against the hospital buildings on Wednesday. It added that those killed or injured were armed members of opposition groups and their supporters but not civilians.

A senior official for rescue services in Rakhine told the Associated Press on Thursday that 34 people, including patients and medical staff, were killed and about 80 others injured, when an army jet fighter dropped two bombs on the general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the Arakan Arm, or AA. He said the hospital building was destroyed by the bombs on Wednesday night.

The United Nations on Thursday said in a statement that the attack was part of a broader pattern of strikes causing harm to civilians and civilian objects that are devastating communities across the country.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation, said in its statement on X that he was "appalled" by the attack on the hospital that provided primary healthcare, saying it will disrupt access to health care for entire communities.

Mrauk-U, located 530 kilometers (326 miles) northwest of Yangon, the country's largest city, was captured by the Arakan Army in February 2024.

The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar's central government. It began its offensive in Rakhine in November 2023, and has seized a strategically important regional army headquarters and 14 of Rakhine's 17 townships.

The group vowed in its statement released on Thursday that it will pursue accountability in cooperation with global organizations to ensure justice and take "strong and decisive action" against the military.

The group also said in separate statements that the army had launched a series of night time airstrikes in five towns in Rakhine since the hospital attack and at least eight civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power in 2021, triggering widespread popular opposition. Many opponents of military rule have since taken up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump'simmigration policies, wasreleasedfrom immigration detention on Thursday, and a judge hastemporarily blockedany further efforts to detain him.

Abrego Garciacurrently can't be deported to his home country of El Salvador thanks to a 2019 immigration court order that found he had a "well founded fear" of danger there. However, the Trump administration has said he cannot stay in the U.S. Over the past few months, government officials have said they would deport him toUganda, Eswatini, Ghanaand, most recently,Liberia.

Abrego Garcia is fighting his deportation in federal court in Maryland, where his attorneys claim the administration is manipulating the immigration system to punish him for successfully challenging his earlier deportation.

Here's what to know about the latest developments in the case:

Who is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?

Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who haslived in Marylandfor years. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager to join his brother, who had become a U.S. citizen. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country.

While he was allowed to live and work in the U.S. under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision, he was not given residency status. Earlier this year, he wasmistakenly deportedto El Salvador, despite the earlier court ruling.

In custody since March

When Abrego Garcia was deported in March, he was held ina notoriously brutal Salvadoran prisondespite having no criminal record.

The Trump administration initially fought efforts to bring him back to the U.S. but eventually complied after the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in. Hereturned to the U.S.in June, only to face an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia was held in a Tennessee jail for more than two months before he was released on Friday, Aug. 22, to await trial in Maryland under home detention.

His freedom lasted a weekend. On the following Monday, he reported to the Baltimore immigration office for a check-in and was immediately taken into immigration custody. Officials announced plans to deport him to a series of African countries, but they were blocked by an order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland.

No deportation order

On Thursday, after months of legal filings and hearings, Xinis ruled that Abrego Garcia should be released immediately. Her ruling hinged on what was likely a procedural error by the immigration judge who heard his case in 2019.

Normally, in a case like this, an immigration judge will first issue an order of removal. Then the judge will essentially freeze that order by issuing a "withholding of removal" order, according to Memphis immigration attorney Andrew Rankin.

In Abrego Garcia's case, the judge granted withholding of removal to El Salvador because he found Abrego Garcia's life could be in danger there. However, the judge never took the first step of issuing the order of removal. The government argued in Xinis' court that the order of removal could be inferred, but the judge disagreed.

Without a final order of removal, Abrego Garcia can't be deported, Xinis ruled.

Possible next steps

The only way to get an order of removal is to go back to immigration court and ask for one, Rankin said. But reopening the immigration case is a gamble because Abrego Garcia's attorneys would likely seek protection from deportation in the form of asylum or some other type of relief.

One wrinkle is that immigration courts are officially part of the executive branch, and the judges there are not generally viewed as being as independent as federal judges.

"There might be independence in some areas, but if the administration wants a certain result, by all accounts it seems they're going to exert the pressure on the individuals to get that result," Rankin said. "I hope he gets a fair shake, and two lawyers make arguments — somebody wins, somebody loses — instead of giving it to an immigration judge with a 95% denial rate, where everybody in the world knows how it's gonna go down."

Alternatively, the government could appeal Xinis' order to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and try to get her ruling overturned, Rankin said. If the appeals court agreed with the government that the final order of removal was implied, there could be no need to reopen the immigration case.

Free for now

In compliance with Xinis' order, Abrego Garcia was released from immigration detention in Pennsylvania on Thursday evening and allowed to return home for the first time in months. However, he was also told to report to an immigration officer in Baltimore early the next morning.

Fearing that he would be detained again, his attorneys asked Xinis for a temporary restraining order. Xinis filed that order early Friday morning. It prohibits immigration officials from taking Abrego Garcia back into custody, at least for the time being. A hearing on the issue could happen as early as next week.

The criminal case continues

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Abrego Garcia haspleaded not guiltyin the criminal case where he is charged with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling.

Prosecutors claim he accepted money to transport, within the United States, people who were in the country illegally. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding.Body camera footagefrom a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. However, Abrego Garcia was eventually allowed to continue driving with only a warning.

Abrego Garcia has asked U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw todismiss the smuggling chargeson the grounds of "selective or vindictive prosecution."

Crenshaw earlier found "some evidence that the prosecution against him may be vindictive" and said many statements by Trump administration officials "raise cause for concern." Crenshaw specifically cited a statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on a Fox News Channel program that seemed to suggest the Justice Department charged Abrego Garcia because he wonhis wrongful-deportation case.

The two sides have been sparring over whether senior Justice Department officials, including Blanche, can be required to testify in the case.

NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) — Sitting in her wheelchair, Haneen al-Mabhouh dreams of rebuilding her family, of cradling a new baby. She dreams of walking again. But with her leg gone, herlife in Gazais on hold, she says, as she waits to goabroad for further treatment.

An Israeli airstrike in July 2024 smashedher home in central Gazaas she and her family slept. All four of her daughters were killed, including her 5-month-old baby. Her husband was severely burned. Al-Mabhouh's legs were crushed under the rubble, and doctors had to amputate her right leg above the knee.

"For the past year and a half, I have been unable to move around, to live like others. For the past year and a half, I have been without children," she said, speaking at her parents' home.

The 2-month-oldceasefire in Gazahas been slow to bring help for thousands of Palestinians who suffered amputations from Israeli bombardment over the past two years. TheWorld Health Organizationestimates there are some 5,000 to 6,000 amputees from the war, 25% of them children.

Those who lost limbs are struggling to adapt, faced with a shortage of prosthetic limbs and long delays in medical evacuations out of Gaza.

The WHO said a shipment of essential prosthetic supplies recently made it into Gaza. That appears to be the first significant shipment for the past two years.

Previously, Israel had let in almost no ready-made prosthetic limbs or material to manufacture limbs since the war began, according to Loay Abu Saif, the head of the disability program at Medical Aid for Palestinians, or MAP, and Nevin Al Ghussein, acting director of the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City.

The Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid, known as COGAT, did not respond when asked how many prosthetic supplies had entered during the war or about its policies on such supplies.

'My future is paralyzed'

Al-Mabhouh was asleep with her baby girl in her arms when the strike hit their home in Nuseirat, she said. For several weeks while recovering in the hospital, al-Mabhouh had no idea her children had been killed.

She underwent multiple surgeries. Her hand still has difficulty moving. Her remaining leg remains shattered, held together with rods. She needs a bone graft and other treatments that are only available outside of Gaza.

She was put on the list for medical evacuation 10 months ago but still hasn't gotten permission to leave Gaza.

Waiting for her chance to go, she lives at her parents' house. She needs help changing clothes and can't even hold a pen, and remains crushed by grief over her daughters. "I never got to hear her say 'mama,' see her first tooth or watch her take her first steps," she said of her baby.

She dreams of having a new child but can't until she gets treatment.

"It's my right to live, to have another child, to regain what I lost, to walk, just to walk again," she said. "Now my future is paralyzed. They destroyed my dreams."

Medical evacuations remain slow

The ceasefire has hardly brought any increase in medical evacuations for the 16,500 Palestinians the U.N. says are waiting to get vital treatment abroad — not just amputees, but patients suffering many kinds of chronic conditions or wounds.

As of Dec. 1, 235 patients have been evacuated since the ceasefire began in October, just under five a day. In the months before that, the average was about three a day.

Israel last week said it was ready to allow patients and other Palestinians to leave Gaza via the Israeli-held Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. But it's unsure that will happen because Egypt, which controls the crossing's other side, demands Rafah also be opened for Palestinians to enter Gaza as called for under the ceasefire deal.

Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told The Associated Press that the backlog is caused by the lack of countries to host the evacuated patients. He said new medevac routes need to be opened, especially to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, where hospitals are ready to receive patients.

For those waiting, life grinds to a standstill

Yassin Marouf lies in a tent in central Gaza, his left foot amputated, his right leg barely held together with rods.

The 23-year-old and his brother were hit by Israeli shelling in May as they returned from visiting their home in northern Gaza that their family had been forced to flee. His brother was killed. Marouf lay bleeding on the ground, as a stray dog attacked his mangled left leg.

Doctors say his right leg will also need to be amputated, unless he can travel abroad for operations that might save it. Marouf said he can't afford painkillers and can't go to the hospital regularly to have his bandages changed as they're supposed to.

"If I want to go to the bathroom, I need two or three people to carry me," he said.

Mohamed al-Naggar had been pursuing an IT degree at the University of Palestine before the war.

Seven months ago, shrapnel pierced his left leg during strikes on the house where his family was sheltering. Doctors amputated his leg above the knee. His right leg was also badly injured and shrapnel remains in parts of his body.

Despite four surgeries and physical therapy, the 21-year-old al-Naggar can't move around.

"I'd like to travel abroad and put on a prosthetic and graduate from college and be normal like young people outside Gaza," he said.

Gaza faces prosthetic limb shortage

Some 42,000 Palestinians have suffered life-changing injuries in the war, including amputations, brain trauma, spinal cord injuries and major burns, the WHO said in an October report.

The situation has "improved slightly" for those with assistance needs but "there is still a huge overall shortage of assistive products," such as wheelchairs, walkers and crutches. Gaza has only eight prosthetists able to manufacture and fit artificial limbs, the WHO said in a statement to the AP.

The Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, one of two prosthetics centers still operating in the territory, received a shipment of material to manufacture limbs just before the war began in 2023, said its director, Al Ghussein. Another small shipment entered in December 2024, but nothing since.

The center has been able to provide artificial limbs for 250 cases over the course of the war, but supplies are running out, Al Ghussein said.

No pre-made prosthetic legs or arms have entered, according to Abu Saif of MAP, who said Israel does not ban them, but its procedures cause delays and "in the end they ignore it."

Ibrahim Khalif wants a prosthetic right leg so he can get a job doing manual labor or cleaning houses to support his pregnant wife and children.

In January, he lost his leg when an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza City while he was out getting food.

"I used to be the provider for my kids, but now I'm sitting here," Khalif said. "I think of how I was and what I've become."