On December 21, the junta dropped a total of four bombs from jet fighters on two villages in Thaton District, territory of the Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 1, causing damage.
In the afternoon of December 21, a junta jet fighter dropped two 300-pound bombs on Chaungwa Village in the Khaywea Village Tract of Kyaikto Township. The bombs exploded near a cemetery on the village outskirts, damaging a nearby monastery and a motorcycle, according to local sources and Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 1.
Later that evening, junta aircraft dropped two 250-pound bombs on Kyonsein Village in the Hattalaik Village Tract of Hpa-An Township, damaging an orchard.
“Around 3:00 pm, a plane flew really low and dropped bombs near the cemetery tombs. The village had been emptied for a long time, so no one was there. We don’t yet know the full extent of the damage,” a woman from Kyaikto Township said, describing the first airstrike.
The area around Chaungwa Village, which was bombed, had previously been targeted by drone strikes and artillery shelling from the junta, forcing locals to flee and preventing them from returning to their homes.
In addition, three 120mm artillery rounds fired by the junta’s Artillery Battalion 310, based in Thein Za Yat Town of Kyaikto Township, damaged farmland around Khaywea and Chaungwa villages, the KNU Thaton District administration reported.
