Two children were seriously wounded and thousands of civilians fled as Myanmar junta troops launched drone and arson attacks in Singu and Wetlet townships, eastern Sagaing Region, on Monday, according to residents.
Around 150 soldiers attacked Wetlet’s Pal Thu Gyi village with heavy weapons on Monday morning before looting property and torching the village. Nearly a dozen houses were destroyed and civilians have fled Pal Thu Gyi and nearby villages, a Wetlet resident said.
The same troops began raiding eastern Sagaing Township on Saturday and Sunday, displacing thousands of villagers, he said.
“The [junta] column returned to Wetlet Town this morning and there is another military unit deployed in Thone Sit Kan village to fix the Mandalay-Shwebo-Myitkyina railway. Therefore, civilians from around 10 villages are still sheltering in the forest,” he told The Irrawaddy.
Residents have been fleeing the area for the past three months, as around 800 regime troops from Mandalay and Sagaing’s Shwebo Township repair the railway and launch raids that have killed more than 20 residents in Sagaing and Wetlet townships.
After sheltering in the forest for months, the displaced civilians are in urgent need of blankets, food, medicines and antivenom to treat snakebite wounds, a Wetlet resident said.
Two children, aged 13 and 15, were also wounded on Monday when junta troops bombed Tha Yat Pin Su in Yoar Thar Yar village tract in neighboring Singu Township with a drone, according to the local scout team.
One child lost his hand in the attack while the other suffered wounds to his back, said a representative of the scout team. Both were rushed to Mandalay hospital as emergency cases.
“They [junta troops] are attacking the villages with drone bombs every day despite there being no clashes with resistance forces,” the representative told the Irrawaddy.
Junta forces also used a drone bomb to destroy the monastery at nearby Maw Oo village on Saturday, according to locals.
The junta has used drones to bomb residents of five Yoar Thar Yar tract villages, namely Kan Phyu, Maw Oo, Yay La Maw, Tha Yat Pin Su and Nga Bat Chaung, say locals.
