Myanmar junta air strike on hospital kills 31, aid workers say

MRAUK U: A Myanmar military air strike killed more than 30 people at a hospital, aid workers said on Thursday (Dec 11), as the junta wages a withering offensive ahead of elections beginning this month.

The junta has increased air strikes year-on-year since the start of Myanmar's civil war, conflict monitors say, after snatching power in a 2021 putsch ending a decade-long democratic experiment.

The military has set polls starting Dec 28 - touting the vote as an off-ramp to fighting - but rebels have pledged to block it from territory they control, which the junta is battling to claw back.

A military jet bombed the general hospital of Mrauk-U in western Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, on Wednesday evening, two aid workers said.