Junta troops killed at least seven civilians and five fighters in three resistance strongholds of Sagaing Region—Ayadaw, Khin-U and Yinmabin townships—in the past several days, village residents and resistance fighters said.
The province has accounted for about 40 percent of the total civilians killed in Myanmar’s war so far this year, according to a report released last week by the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar.
The townships are located in the south of the province—in Monywa, Shwebo and Yinmabin districts, respectively.
On Monday, residents of Thea Kone village and resistance forces found at least six bodies with signs of blunt force trauma on their heads after junta infantry raided the village in Yinmabin Township on Sunday.
“They died of severe head injuries. Their heads were struck by wooden clubs. We also found multiples knife wounds on their bodies,” a resistance member who cremated their bodies said.
At least three of the dead were under the age of 18, resistance members said.
The junta is trying to create “a humanitarian crisis in Sagaing Region” by destroying property and killing “everyone” to weaken resistance to it, the UN report quotes a doctor treating victims of the junta’s military in the province as saying.
The killings followed a fierce fighting near Yamar creek on Sunday where resistance fighters clashed with a junta infantry battalion and a pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia advancing towards Yinmabin from Pale Township.
“Twelve junta troops were killed during the clash and they cremated the bodies of their troops inside two huts in Sin Te Village on Monday,” a resistance fighter said.
The Irrawaddy was unable to verify his account.
On Sunday, one resistance member was decapitated after being captured by junta troops, members of a People’s Defense Force (PDF) in Yinmabin said. “They arrested three PDF members on Sunday. One was beheaded and the other two escaped,” one member of the PDF explained.
Junta infantry killed at least four PDF members during a series of raids on at least five villages in Monywa District’s Ayadaw Township since October 13.
A resistance member, who was scouting the movement of junta infantry, was shot dead on Sunday by junta troops between War Yaung and War Tan villages.
At least seven people from War Yaung village were detained on Sunday. One of them was later released, resistance forces said.
Another three PDF members were also killed by junta troops near Aung Thar Kone Village in Ayadaw Township, sources said. They did not provide further details, but on Monday pro-junta Telegram channels reported that at least three PDF members were killed near the village when junta troops seized a resistance base in the township that day.
Junta troops from No. 10 Military Training School and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia remained stationed at Se Gyi Taw village in Ayadaw Township on Tuesday.
Another junta infantry column raided villages in Khin-U Township, displacing more than 5,000 people on Sunday.
The body of one man was found near Nyaung Pin Gyi Village on Monday, residents said. He “was shot dead by junta troops while returning to his village after he thought junta troops were gone,” one resident said.
Five thousand residents from at least six villages in the township have been displaced since Sunday, residents and resistance forces say.
