Children killed by Myanmar army’s shelling near Shan-Karenni border

Indiscriminate shelling by the Myanmar military killed six civilians—three of them children—in southern Shan State’s Pekhon Township near the Karenni State border, according to a local advocacy organisation. A teenage girl and two infants as well as two women and one man died on Wednesday when artillery shells fell and detonated at around 3pm in Kone Paw village on the eastern shore of the Moebye Reservoir, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group (KHRG). “A one-month-old girl, a one-year-old girl, and their mother who died at the scene were from Kone Paw. The three other victims were displaced people sheltering in the village,” said Banya Khung Aung, a KHRG representative. Three people including a 12-year-old boy were also injured by the shelling. “A 12-year-old boy suffered abdominal injuries and is in critical condition. His mother was also among the people killed,” Banya Khung Aung said. Local sources said junta troops had been keeping up a regular artillery barrage on both civilian and resistance targets from newly established hilltop outposts near the town of Pekhon. The troops have also stationed in various places inside the town, including schools, the police station, and the checkpoints at the town entrances. Fighting is ongoing in Pekhon Township as regime forces push to recapture Moebye, a village tract in Pekhon Township under the control of Karenni resistance forces around 14 miles southeast of the town of Pekhon, according to sources within the anti-junta Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF). “Clashes have erupted repeatedly in the areas between Moebye and Pekhon, as well as on the outskirts of Loikaw. To ensure the safety of displaced people in those areas, we cannot disclose the exact locations,” a KNDF spokesperson said. On Tuesday, Karenni resistance forces intercepted a column of junta troops near the Karenni-Shan border, approximately two miles northwest of the Karenni State capital of Loikaw and five miles east of Moebye, according to the spokesperson. The troops had been deployed from an infantry battalion base in Bago Region. The ambush resulted in heavy casualties for the junta troops, the seizure of weapons and ammunition, and the capture of five soldiers by the anti-regime forces, he said. Four civilians were killed and six wounded in early November when several villages midway between Moebye and Loikaw became targets of junta shelling. Two civilians in Pekhon Township were killed when junta warplanes struck Kar La village around the same time.

Children killed by Myanmar army’s shelling near Shan-Karenni border

The fighting and junta shelling in Pekhon Township is due to the regime forces’ push to recapture the large village tract of Moebye from Karenni resistance forces

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