Resistance forces:esistance forces, aid workers, and eyewitnesses said on Thursday that at least 30 people, including patients, were killed after the Myanmar military launched an airstrike on a major hospital in Rakhine State, western Myanmar. More than 70 people were also injured.

According to Thai News Agency, a spokesman for the Arakan Army, which is fighting the Myanmar military government in Rakhine State, said a hospital in Mrauk U, Rakhine State, was attacked late Wednesday with bombs dropped from a military aircraft, completely destroying it. The death toll is very high due to the direct bombing of the hospital.

Relief officials said the 300-bed hospital was at full capacity when the attack occurred, as most healthcare services across Rakhine State had been suspended amid ongoing fighting. By Thursday morning, the hospital building was in ruins; the roof had collapsed, pillars and beams were shattered, and the bodies of the deceased were laid out on the floor. Witnesses said the remaining patients had been moved to safety.

Myanmar’s military junta, the only party in Myanmar with air power, has steadily increased its airstrikes against targets in areas controlled by opposition forces. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, an independent non-profit organization that collects, compiles, and analyzes data on conflict and violence worldwide, the military junta conducted 2,165 airstrikes from January to the end of November this year, compared to 1,716 for the entire year of 2024.

The resistance groups that emerged after the military coup that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 have allied with major ethnic armies, such as the Arakan Army, to fight the Myanmar military, which is facing battles on multiple fronts, according to an analysis published by the Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS), a social science and policy research organization focusing on Southeast Asia. The Arakan Army has driven the Myanmar military out of 14 of 17 towns in Rakhine State since the ceasefire collapsed in 2023, and has gained control of an area of more than 30,000 square kilometers.

The town of Mrauk U, located in northern Rakhine State, has been under the control of the Arakan Army since last year, and there has been no fighting in the area recently.