Around 100 houses were burned down by Myanmar’s junta forces during a raid on anti-regime strongholds in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region, on Monday.
On Monday morning, more than 100 regime forces and members of the Pyuu-Saw-Htee group – a militia trained and armed with firearms by the military – shelled Kaeba village in the township during the raid, according to residents.
Regime forces have been deployed at nearby Thalaeba village for about a month.
The Irrawaddy could not independently verify any of the reports.
After occupying Kaeba on Monday, regime forces burned around 100 houses out of 300 in the village. They also looted homes and stole motorbikes, a villager told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
“Our whole village bravely joined the anti-regime movement against the regime from the beginning. The junta tried to crush us because we are famed for our opposition,” he said.
More than 2,000 Kaeba villagers fled their homes when regime reinforcements arrived.
“We condemn these junta atrocities. People are crying for their losses. Many villagers are now homeless,” the villager said.
The Ayadaw Revolutionary Alliance, a civilian resistance group, called the arson a war crime aimed to harm non-combatants.
On Saturday, the regime hit the village with artillery.
Myanmar’s junta continues to arbitrarily kill civilians, burn civilians alive, use civilian detainees as human shields, bombard residential areas and loot and burn houses, especially in Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin, Shan and Kayah states where resistance groups are most active.
By Monday, an estimated 1,329 people have been killed and 10,923, including elected government leaders, have been detained by the junta since the Feb. 1 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group which compiles the deaths and arrests.
Regime forces face intense attacks from people’s defense forces and many ethnic armed groups across the country.
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