Kantarawaddy Times
On October 23rd yesterday at 9:00 PM, a junta mortar shell hit the Khon Tha War Displacement Camp west of Loikaw city, Karenni State, killing a father instantly and causing injury to the mother and son.
A representative of the Karenni War Refugee Support Network said that three large shells fell on or near the refugee camp, one of them a direct hit on the family’s temporary house.
“Last night at around 9:00 p.m., the junta’s 422nd Artillery Battalion in Mobye fired three rounds at the camp. The father who was killed was 35 years old; his wife, who received a head wound, is 33. Their 8-year-old son was injured in the thigh. There is also a 6-month-old baby who was not injured. There was no battle in that vicinity, it was an unprovoked junta attack on civilian refugees,” said the refugee support worker.
Currently, the woman with the head injury is in critical condition. There were three incidents of mortar shells falling near the refugee camp in the past, but no one had been injured. Locals say that the Kone Tha war refugee camp has a population of around 4,000 and is about 16 kilometers south of the junta’s 422nd Battalion based in Mobye.
From October 1st to 23rd in Karenni State, one civilian was killed by junta mortar fire and seven were injured, including two children ages 5 and 8.
