On Wednesday, the Burma army killed a five-year-old child and injured three other members of the same family in an attack on a village where no fighting was reported in Kalay Township, Sagaing Region.
“They fired artillery shells indiscriminately and one of the shells hit a civilian house when the family members were sleeping,” a man has told Khonumthung News.
The child’s head was decapitated, he said, while his mother lost her right leg below the knee during the strike on their village of Ashay San Tha at 10:20pm. Her other son suffered a shrapnel injury to the head and is in a critical condition, while her third son (12) only received a minor injury.
On the same day, a 21-year-old man from Tha Si, also in southern Kalay Township, lost his life from regime’s shelling of his village.
The junta has been shelling civilians in the township indiscriminately every night, even when there is no fighting in the area, and many people have been killed.
According to a soldier of the People’s Defence Force, at least 5 civilians were killed and more than 20 civilians were wounded during attacks in June.
“Soldiers of the Military Council has more military experience than us,” the man who is fighting the regime explained. He suspects that they know where the resistance fighters are hiding, so why target civilians.
On 22 June, junta troops fired more than 30 bullets at No.14 Middle School 4 in Tawng Phila Ward (also called Taung Phi Lar) in Kalay town at around 9:30am after claiming to have found a bomb near the school.