More than 30 residents of a pro-military village in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan Township were killed by junta shelling as People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) tried to capture the village last Thursday morning, a resistance group in the township said.
Son village was shelled by navy vessels patrolling the Ayeyarwady River nearby soon after local PDFs jointly attacked the village where a pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia was based, the PDF said.
The ships fired 60 mm artillery shells on the village soon after Myingyan Township PDFs attacked it, the Myingyan Black Tiger resistance group said.
The PDF said 32 civilians, 17 men and 15 women, were killed by the shelling.
Bo Mike Khal, the leader of the PDF, said that the navy vessels were near Hsimee Khone village when they shelled Son. “Hsimee Khone is near Son and the military vessels were on the Ayeyarwady River there,” he said.
Son village is between Myingyan and Ngazun towns. Resistance groups say it had the biggest Pyu Saw Htee militia in Myingyan Township and that the militia was well-armed by the junta.
Resistance fighters attacked it at 5 am on Thursday and seized it four hours later. Five Pyu Saw Htee militia members were killed in the attack, resistance groups said. “We asked them to surrender, but they did not,” Bo Mike Khal said.
Residents of Son village have been steadfast supporters of the military, with a majority voting for its Union Solidarity and Development Party. The National League for Democracy party was beaten by the military proxy party in the 2012 by-elections, and the last two elections, in 2015 and 2020.
A resident of Myingyan said Son became a Pyu Saw Htee-controlled village after the coup. Pyu Saw Htee militias have been described as vigilante groups armed by the military.
The junta was quick to blame resistance groups for the civilian deaths. On Friday, it used one of its main websites, the Commander-In-Chief of Defense Service, to accuse PDFs of firing heavy and small weapons into Son village, saying that besides the 32 people killed, 14 more civilians were wounded.
Bo Mike Khal said this was false, explaining that PDF members tried to help residents of Son escape from the shelling and gunfire. A video released by Myingyan Black Tiger after the capture of Son shows PDF fighters helping village residents reach safety. The video shows resistance fighters transporting elderly people out of the village on their motorbikes.
