, Dec. 11 -- A Myanmar military air strike on a hospital in western Rakhine state killed at least 31 people, an on-site aid worker said Thursday, as the junta intensifies its offensive ahead of elections scheduled for this month.

The military has escalated air strikes since seizing power in a 2021 coup that ended a decade of democratic governance, conflict monitors report. Polls are set to begin on December 28, which the junta presents as a path to peace, but rebel groups have vowed to prevent voting in areas under their control.

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Wai Hun Aung, an aid worker at Mrauk-U General Hospital near the Bangladesh border, said the situation was "terrible," with 31 confirmed dead an...