One man was killed and another severely injured when an artillery shell landed inside a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sagaing Region’s Khin-U Township on Sunday.
According to resistance sources, the shell was one of two fired from a junta base in the Inpat Kway market, in western Khin-U Township. The IDP camp is located in a school in Inpat, a village on the eastern bank of the Mu River opposite the town of Ye-U.
“They opened fire to secure passage for a column that was heading for Ye-U. No one was injured by the shell that fell inside the village, but the other one hit both people and livestock inside the IDP camp,” said Lin Yaung, spokesperson for the Khin-U Special Force Organisation (KSO), a local resistance group.
The victims were identified as Than Soe, 48, who was killed instantly, and Tun Myint Oo, who sustained serious injuries. At least two cows were killed and two more were hit by shrapnel, according to the KSO spokesperson.
On Saturday, a column of around 100 regime forces entered Khin-U Township from neighbouring Shwebo Township, where it was temporarily based. After spending the night in the village of Tei Bo Pin, it left for Ye-U early the next day.
According to locals, the column has been carrying out raids in western Khin-U Township since the beginning of July.
There were also reports that around 30 of the junta troops stationed at the Inpat Kway market raided the neighbouring village of Chan Thar Kone early Sunday morning, before the shelling incident.
A 40mm missile fired at a tractor during that raid left one person—a 40-year-old man named Hla Moe—with injuries to his leg, according to sources.
Inpat has been a frequent target of regime attacks. Located near the village of Ywar Thit Kone—a local stronghold of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia—it has lost roughly half of its homes to arson attacks carried out by regime forces.
In April, an 83-year-old woman named Pu Sein died while fleeing from a military raid on Inpat, local sources told Myanmar Now.
Despite its vulnerability, however, the village’s school continues to serve as a shelter for around 50 civilians, the sources added.
Thousands of villagers have been displaced in western Khin-U Township since the military stepped up its campaign to eradicate resistance forces in the area late last year.
