BANGKOK: Air strikes by Myanmar's military on two villages largely inhabited by ethnic Karen have killed at least five civilians and destroyed two churches, two relief organizations said on Friday.

Thursday's strikes left a mother and her 2-year-old daughter, the pastor of a Baptist church, a Catholic deacon and a church layman dead, according to the Karen Women's Organization and the Free Burma Rangers.

'Air strikes are killing civilians and destroying homes, medical centers, churches, schools, libraries and monasteries,' the women's group said in a statement.

The Karen, who live largely in the eastern part of Myanmar, along the border with Thailand, are one of the most established ethnic minority rebel forces and have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from the central government. Fighting increased after Feb. 1, 2021, when the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The military used deadly force to suppress peaceful protests against its takeover, which triggered armed resistance by pro-democracy forces that joined hands with some of the ethnic rebel groups, including the Karen. The military-installed government then launched offensives in the countryside to try to secure territory using air strikes and burning villages.

The National Unity Government, an underground group that calls itself the Southeast Asian country's legitimate government and serves as an umbrella organization for opponents of military rule, said in a statement this week that since the army takeover, '460 innocent civilians, mostly children, have lost their lives due to [the military's] repeated air strikes.'

The Free Burma Rangers said their volunteers watched from a distance as jets made two bombing runs on Thursday over Lay Wah, one of the attacked villages in Karen state's Mutraw district, also called Papun. They said the volunteers arrived after dark at the village, where the five people died and the churches were destroyed.

'The first thing we saw on the end of the village was a buffalo with half the front leg torn off stumbling around in agony, and we saw shrapnel-damaged homes and roofs blown off,' the group said in a statement.

The other bombed village was Paw Khee Lah, where a woman and child were wounded, according to the Karen women's group.

Because Karen villagers have become accustomed to living with war, they conduct many daily activities, like schooling, in the jungle. The Free Burma Rangers said if students had been in their village classroom, they would have all died because that structure was completely destroyed.

The bombing in Karen state was the second reported air offensive by the Myanmar military this week. In western Myanmar's Chin state, military planes bombed on Tuesday and Wednesday the headquarters of the Chin National Front, another ethnic rebel militia closely linked to the country's pro-democracy movement.

Five members of the Chin National Army were killed on Tuesday, Salai Htet Ni, a spokesman for the Chin National Front, said in a text message. Wednesday's bombing damaged a clinic and other buildings in the camp, he added.