Five people, including a child, were killed when the junta carried out an airstrike on a facility holding prisoners of war (POWs) and their families in Mese Township, Karenni State.

The POW detention center run by Karenni resistance forces was hit by a junta airstrike on the morning of March 5, killing five people, including an 8-year-old child, according to U Banyar, secretary of the Interim Executive Council of Karenni State (IEC).

“There is no active fighting in Mese. The detainees at the detention center are junta troops and their family members captured during clashes in Hpasawng Township. We have been treating the prisoners well, but the junta deliberately bombed its own troops. At 10:15 a.m., an airstrike hit the detention center, killing five people, including four women and girls. One of them was an 8-year-old girl,” U Banyar said.

The junta dropped eight bombs, believed to be 200-pound bombs, on the detention center and its surrounding areas, where no fighting was taking place.

“One of our neighbors went to see the site hit by the airstrike. He said there were five dead and seven wounded. I think the resistance fighters would have more accurate information. We didn’t dare go to check ourselves out of fear that more junta warplanes might come,” a Mese Township resident said.

For Mese Town, located near the Thailand border, junta airstrikes are a common occurrence.

On January 18, a total of 83 inmates, including 76 POWs, escaped from a detention center in Mese during a prison break. Among them, those who reached Thai territory were handed over to the junta by Thai authorities on January 26.

Locals are growing increasingly concerned about security after the junta launched airstrikes, targeting even facilities holding its own troops.

The IEC is still investigating the aftermath of the airstrike to determine the full extent of the damage and casualties.