In Lashio Township in northern Shan State, where intense fighting between the junta and the Three Brotherhood Alliance is raging, an artillery shell struck a residential area, killing five members of the same family.
At around 7:00 a.m. on July 3rd, an artillery shell struck a house on Byuhar Street in Lashio's No. 1 Ward, killing two women, two men, and one child, reported by neighbors.
“After hearing a series of artillery echoes, the shell fell directly on that house. It is not yet known which organization fired it. When the artillery fire started, we ran to the underground bomb shelter, but our neighbor's family faced such a cruel fate”, a local woman told KNG.
Among the dead were an elderly widow, Daw Makaw Marji, her elder son and daughter-in-law, her younger son, and a child who was residing there for school.
Two people survived in the house that was hit by the artillery shell, including an infant.
The bodies of the victims were initially brought to a local church, but they had to be taken to the morgue for examination with the help of a civil aid organization.
Clashes between junta troops and the Three Brotherhood Alliance have intensified again since midnight on July 2 near Nawnmun village in Lashio.
Alliance combatants are now advancing toward Lashio from multiple directions, prompting the junta to respond with artillery fire from the town.
“Now, even if we want to leave, we're not sure which way to go. We heard the road to Kutkai is destroyed. The only route left to Tangyan has a destroyed bridge. We had to build bomb shelters in our yards and stay put”, the aforementioned woman said.
After June 20, amid escalating military tensions with the Alliance around Lashio, junta troops bulldozed all local roads connecting to their bases as a defensive measure.
With the junta's significant losses from the Three Brotherhood Alliance's 'Operation 1027' in northern Shan State late last year, a ceasefire brokered by China was established on January 11.
However, clashes have reignited due to the junta's frequent provocations, including airstrikes and shelling of the Alliance's positions.
