NAYPYITAW, 21 August 2021, (TON): According to local residents “a house was destroyed in the Kachin State town of Waingmaw night after troops from the Myanmar army’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 58 fired artillery shells at three residential neighbourhoods.

The shelling took place between 8pm and 9pm, said “a man who lives near the battalion. He added that one artillery shell narrowly missed a house in Waingmaw’s Hkakun ward.”

“They were lucky they were all sleeping at the time. If they had gone out to see where firing was coming from, they might have been hit,” he said of the house’s inhabitants, noting that the shell exploded directly over the house and left pieces of shrapnel on its roof.

He added “there was also an unexploded 60mm artillery shell in the neighbourhood.”

Two other Waingmaw wards nearby were also affected by the shelling, according to residents of the town.

Myitkyina residents said “they saw three armoured vehicles and a number of military trucks leave for Waingmaw at around the same time as the shelling there on Wednesday night.”

Another Waingmaw resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Kachin Independence Army (KIA) troops fired a few shots at a junta post two villages away from IB 58 at around 8pm, and the army troops fired back at them.

KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu was not available for comment on the incident when contacted.