Around 3,000 civilians have fled their homes in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Region after the junta conducted an airstrike to clear the path for a military convoy on Wednesday, according to locals.
The military convoy of six vehicles and 13 trucks left Salingyi on Wednesday. An Mi-35 helicopter gunship then strafed the area between Bike Thayat and Lae Naguk villages for an hour before the convoy passed, said A Nya Pyitinehtaung, a local aid group.
The aerial assault failed to deter the Salingyi Special Task Force, which attacked the convoy with mines and drone bombs in the same area on Wednesday afternoon. The resistance group said regime troops may have suffered casualties in the attack.
The junta convoy was transporting 300 troops and rations bound for Pale Township in southern Sagaing. Thousands of civilians from around 10 villages fled their homes as soldiers in the passing convoy opened fire, according to A Nya Pyitinehtaung.
“The convoy passed through Lae Nguk village on Thursday morning but we still don’t know the casualties from the airstrike yet. The villagers are just watching the situation,” a spokesperson for the group told The Irrawaddy.
The Salingyi Township People’s Administration has warned residents not to use the Pathein-Monywa, Salingyi- Kyar Tet, and Salingyi- Lae Naguk roads except for medical emergencies. It also warned locals to stay alert to security threats.
Civilians in Salingyi Township have endured two years of a junta terror campaign featuring torture, killings, arson and arrests following the 2021 coup.
Resistance forces in the township have hit back by attacking junta troops and their bases. In June, a combined resistance force raided the Nyaung Pin Gyi village outpost under the nose of the regime’s Northwestern Command across the Chindwin River in Monya town.
Regime troops retaliated by torching houses in Nyaung Pin Gyi and four neighboring villages.
Salingyi residents have also been fleeing frequent raids by regime troops based at Chinese-run mines in the township. Troops have killed at least 31 civilians living around the Letpadaung copper mine and torched around 2,000 houses since the coup, according to the local strike committee.
