MILITARY air strikes in western Myanmar killed at least 25 members of the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority, local media reported on Tuesday.

According to the reports, the air strikes took place early on Monday morning and targeted the village of Thada, north of Minbya township in Rakhine state. 

The strikes also left another 25 people wounded. The military government had no immediate comment on the reports.

The Rohingya village of Thada is about 120 miles south-west of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city. 

Two villagers from the Thada village told reporters that a jet fighter dropped two bombs on the village. 

Six children were among the 25 killed, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fears of arrests and reprisals.

The victims included those who had fled fighting in nearby villages.

The attack prompted United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres to express deep concern over “the deteriorating situation and escalation of conflict in Myanmar,” according to a spokesman.

The UN chief “condemns all forms of violence and reiterates his call for the protection of civilians, including aid workers in accordance with international humanitarian law, for the cessation of hostilities, and humanitarian access,” said Mr Guterres’s deputy spokesman Farhan Haq in a statement.

Myanmar’s military is increasingly using air strikes to counter the widespread armed struggle against its rule since it seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

A report issued at the end of last year by Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica, a Myanmar research and advocacy organisation, said that since the military’s 2021 takeover, 936 civilians had been killed and 878 wounded in 1,652 air strikes. 

It said that 137 religious buildings, 76 schools and 28 hospitals and dispensaries had been damaged by aerial attacks.

The Buddhist Rakhine are the majority ethnic group in Rakhine, which is also known by its older name of Arakan. 

The Rakhine, like other ethnic groups in Myanmar’s border regions, have long sought more autonomy from the central government and have set up their own armed force called the Arakan Army.

The well-trained and well-armed force has been attacking army outposts in Rakhine since November and has claimed to have seized two towns and scores of military targets in at least five townships during the past three months. 

It also captured a town in neighbouring Chin state. 

“The expansion of conflict in Rakhine is driving displacement and exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities and discrimination,” the statement by Mr Haq said.