Myanmar junta forces raided a string of villages in central Myanmar killing three civilians and sending some 10,000 fleeing from their homes after anti-junta insurgents attacked a nearby military base, residents told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
The Sagaing region has been regularly battered by airstrikes and artillery bombardments as junta forces crack down on insurgent groups that have stepped up attacks in the past nine months.
On Thursday, about 150 junta soldiers in a convoy of vehicles raided at least nine villages in Kanbalu township, residents said, following an attack on an army camp by members of an anti-junta People’s Defense Force allied with the shadow National Unity Government, which was formed by civilians after the military seized power in a 2021 coup.
“After the Kyi Kone Bridge camp was attacked, the army launched an offensive on the villages,” said one resident who declined to be identified in fear of his safety.
“The junta troops stationed at Tha Yet Khaung village are burning houses this morning. Revolutionary groups are monitoring the situation,” he said, referring to anti-junta fighters.”
Three civilians in Tha Yet Khaung and Tha Pyay Thar villages were killed in junta artillery and drone attacks.
Kanbalu district and Ye-U township-based People’s Defense Forces said they killed 16 soldiers and seized weapons in their attack on the army camp. RFA has not been able to independently verify the claim.
RFA called Nyunt Win Aung, the junta spokesman for the Sagaing region, to request comment on the incident, but he did not answer the phone.
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Sagaing, for years a peaceful heartland region of central Myanmar, inhabited mostly by members of the majority Burman community, has seen unprecedented opposition to the military since the 2021 coup dashed hopes for reform.
In the months that followed, the junta crushed protests against military rule and many activists then took up arms, some linking up with ethnic minority insurgents who have battled for self-determination from remote border lands for decades.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.