The junta launched an airstrike on Kanpetlet Town in southern Chin State’s Kanpetlet Township, damaging five houses but causing no injuries.

A fighter jet that took off from Aye Lar Airbase in the capital, Naypyidaw, carried out two bombing runs on Kanpetlet on the morning of August 17.

“The plane dropped bombs in the morning, but no one was hurt. Several houses in the central wards, near the town’s school, were badly damaged. People had already taken shelter in the orchards, so the houses were empty when the air raid struck,” a Kanpetlet Town resident said.

Although Kanpetlet Town is under the control of Chin resistance forces and has been declared a junta-free zone, most locals have not returned and continue to shelter in safer areas, leaving the town with only a small population.

Airstrikes have intensified in resistance-controlled townships across Myanmar since the junta imposed martial law on these townships on July 31.