Four killed as military shells a Catholic church near Loikaw 

Four people died and eight were critically injured as the coup regime’s forces bombed a Catholic church near the Kayah State capital of Loikaw in the early hours of Monday morning. 

The Tatmadaw fired artillery shells at the church in Kayan Tharyar village at around 1am, shortly after its troops were ambushed on a nearby road by local resistance fighters. 

People who fled the shelling were chased by soldiers firing guns and hid in nearby caves, a local resident said. 

The ambush came as soldiers travelled from the Kayah capital Loikaw to reinforce troop numbers in Moebye, southern Shan State. 

Civilians-turned-fighters from the Karenni People’s Defense Force (KPDF) said they killed at least 20 members of the regime’s forces in Moebye on Sunday and another 26 outside the nearby town of Demoso. They also captured four soldiers. 

Their members attacked the reinforcements from Loikaw with guns, delaying them on their way to Moebye.

“The KPDF ambushed them near the Kayan Tharyar village and the reinforcements did not arrive at Moebye in time,” the local resident said. 

Soldiers then entered the village and began shooting. “So the locals got scared and ran to the church to hide,” the resident added.

Rescue workers on Monday were unable to send the eight people injured in the shelling to the hospital in Loikaw because there was still fighting along the six-mile stretch of road that leads there, a local resident told Myanmar Now.

No further details about the four people who died were available at the time of reporting.

The military council’s spokesperson could not be contacted for comment about   the killings at the church.