Yebyu Township

Junta artillery fire kills father, three children in southern Myanmar

A junta artillery shell that landed on a rubber plantation in Tanintharyi Region’s Yebyu Township on Tuesday killed four family members and left a fifth critically injured, according to resistance sources. The deceased included three children, aged one, two and 11, and their father. Their mother, 38-year-old Pa Pa Win, was rushed to a nearby medical facility for urgent care, the sources said. Photos obtained by Myanmar Now show that the two-year-old child’s body was cut in half by the shell explosion. The incident occurred some four miles north of the town of Kaleinaung, according to Padoh Saw Ehna, secretary of the Myeik-Dawei District of the Karen National Union (KNU). Junta troops stationed in the town were responsible for the attack, he added. There was no active fighting taking place in Yebyu Township, according to Padoh Saw Ehna. On May 7, a coalition of KNU Brigade 4 and People’s Defence Force troops launched an assault on a junta outpost some 25 miles southeast of Kaleinaung. More than 20 junta soldiers fled towards Thailand following the capture of the outpost. FE5 Tanintharyi, a monitor group that documents conflicts in Tanintharyi Region, reported 13 civilian deaths in the region in May, including…