Myanmar air strike kills five people

A mother and her toddler were among five people killed in a military air strike in Myanmar's east, Karen rebels and an aid group said yesterday.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government was toppled in a military coup almost two years ago, ending the southeast Asian nation's brief period of democracy.

Four junta fighter jets dropped eight bombs on villages in Hpapun district on Thursday afternoon, killing five people, the Karen National Union said in a statement.

Another four people were wounded, the ethnic rebel group said. The Karen live largely in Myanmar's east near the border with Thailand.

Christian aid group the Free Burma Rangers said its staff arrived at Lay Wah village in Hpapun hours after bombs destroyed two churches and a school.

Villagers had fled into the jungle before the air strikes, the group said, and fatalities would have been much higher had children still been in their classrooms.

A Karen National Liberation Army spokesman told AFP there had been another air strike on Friday.

More than 2,700 civilians have been killed since the military grabbed power in February 2021, according to a local monitoring group.