About 1,000 Karenni refugees fled across the Thai-Myanmar border to seek shelter in a rural village in Mueang district of the northernmost province of Mae Hong Son yesterday (Wednesday), after Myanmar military aircraft bombed a Karenni refugee camp, killing at least four and injuring many others.

According a high-ranking source in the Karenni Army, Myanmar MIG-29 jets launched four air strikes early Wednesday against a refugee facility near a Karenni Army camp, located about 1km west of the border with Mae Hong Son.

A field hospital, a school and several shelters were damaged.

The same source said that they learned from an intelligence report that the Myanmar air force planned to attack the command centre of the Karenni Army at the Yamu camp, about 12km to the east of Mae Hong Son’s Mueang district, and didn’t expect that they would attack the refugee camp.

Yesterday, the Mueang district chief officer, Sangkhom Kadchiangsaen, ordered a unit of defence volunteers to Ban Nai Soi, Pang Mu sub-district, to arrange a shelter to accommodate about 1,000 Karenni refugees.

More than 4,000 Karenni refugees have already taken shelter in Mae Sariang, Khun Yuam and Mueang districts.