Myanmar regime troops on Friday raided Tham Mar Yoe Village, Wetlet Township in the anti-regime stronghold of Sagaing Region, torching 269 houses and killing an elderly resident, according to residents.
Around 110 junta troops raided the village in western Wetlet on Friday afternoon and torched the village for three hours despite not engaging with any resistance forces.
“A 78-year-old woman who had earlier suffered a stroke took refuge in a building in the monastic compound and was killed by the fire,” said Bo Young Ni, the leader of G-Z Brothers Young Ni Force.
Situated on the Shwebo-Monywa road, Tham Mar Yoe has more than 700 households. Currently, residents are returning to the village and clearing up the debris, according to a resident.
“They torched the village while passing on the road. Not even the monastery was spared,” a resident said.
Currently, shelter, palm leaves, rice, oil and other foodstuffs are urgently needed for the fire victims, according to the Wetlet Township People’s Strike Committee.
The troops involved in the raid departed the village for the Ayadaw Township military base’s Training Unit Battalion 10 on six vehicles that evening. Later that evening, G-Z Brothers Young Ni Force used eight land mines to mount two attacks on troops in Ayadaw Township, killing four soldiers.
“We attacked a military vehicle first. Then we attacked again when four soldiers got out of the car to clear the mine. It is certain that four were killed,” Bo Young Ni told The Irrawaddy.
His claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Wetlet Township is a resistance stronghold bordering Shwebo and Ayadaw townships, where armed attacks against the military council are frequent. Villages in those townships are frequently raided by regime troops, who routinely torch homes in the villages.
