Five killed as air strike hits churches in Myanmar

Homes are destroyed by suspected military air strikes in the district of Mutraw, also known as Papun, in eastern Myanmar’s Karen State (Karen Human Rights Group via AP)

Five civilians including a mother and her two-year-old daughter have died and two churches were destroyed after air strikes by Myanmar’s military on two villages inhabited largely by ethnic Karen, relief organisations have said.

The dead from the air strikes on villages in Karen state’s Mutraw district on Thursday also included the pastor of a Baptist church, a Catholic deacon and a church layman, according to the Karen Women’s Organisation and the Free Burma Rangers.