Junta aircraft dropped bombs on the Hpa-An Township villages of Methana and Hteekyawkhee at about 6:00 am on 1 March, despite there being no fighting in the area.

Four bombs were dropped on the two villages, according to Saw Aye Naing, the secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU)'s Thaton District office.

He said: “There was no fighting; the villages were bombed without provocation. For now, residents from both villages have temporarily evacuated.”

The airstrikes destroyed a house in Hteekyawkhee Village and a religious building in a monastery compound at the foothills of Methana Mountain, near Methana Village.

Local students are now too afraid to go to school following the airstrikes and almost all the residents of the two villages have fled elsewhere.

According to the statement from the KNU Thaton District office, the junta aircraft dropped 120 mm mortar bombs and handmade plastic grenades.

On 9 February, a junta airstrike on Tagaylaung Village, also in Hpa-An Township, destroyed 11 buildings, including the ordination hall of the village monastery.