Six villagers, including a child, were wounded by Burma Army artillery fire when the military battled with Kachin Independence Army (KIA) near Seng Hpra and Hkum Tsai Zup villages, in Hpakant Township, on Thursday morning, July 15.

The military based in Nam Ya village fired the shells that struck the villages during the one hour clash with KIA at about 5:30am in Kapmaw village tract, Kachin State.

“Three shells landed in the villages, one directly in front of a KBC Church. Six people in a house suffered serious injuries,” a local man from Seng Hpra village said.

The source told KNG that four of the homeowner's relatives were visiting when the fighting broke out. Another villager said a male injured in the house is from Gawlo Yang village.

The six people wounded are Hpau Yu Seng, 60, Lu Htoi Tsin, 37, Hpau La Dut La, 49, Maji La, 51, Hpau Yu Hkawn, 40, and Hpau La Pri Lum, 8.

The night before KIA ambushed a military column in Gawlo Yang.