More than 80 percent of the houses in the Magway Region village of San Myo have been burned by the military

The military raided and torched San Myo village in Magway Region’s Gangaw Township on Tuesday, destroying more than 100 homes in the second attack on the community in less than one month, locals said.

Two junta columns began targeting the village at around 1pm, according to Nway Oo, an officer in a local anti-coup defence force. The troops involved—around 100 personnel, including members of the pro-military Pyu Saw Htee network—had been occupying the nearby villages of Kyauk Pyoke and Myauk Khin Yan before clashing with the resistance a half mile north of San Myo.

“The local defence force tried to defend against the columns but eventually had to retreat due to the difference in firepower. The military then started torching the village,” Nway Oo told Myanmar Now.

He said that the Myanmar army soldiers also fired heavy artillery at the resistance fighters, and that some of the shells landed in San Myo.

Less than 40 homes in the village of 210 households were left undamaged following the attack, a local said.

“Over 100 houses were lost [this time],” a local man said on Wednesday, unsure of the exact number of homes that were destroyed, since residents were forced to flee when the troops arrived.

He confirmed to Myanmar Now that the junta had fired shells, rifles, and thrown handmade explosives, such as molotov cocktails, into the village, and that two villagers were injured.

“They also threatened the head monk of the village, saying that they would burn the monastery down if the villagers did not support the military,” the local man said.

“A similar thing happened not too long ago, so just over 30 houses have been left unburned now. The fire had not gone out yet until this morning,” he added, referring to the previous military assault on San Myo on December 21, when junta forces burnt more than 30 homes and shops to the ground while looting others.

Defence force member Nway Oo said that the soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members responsible for Tuesday’s attack had also carried out an air raid on Hnan Khar village on December 17.

He added that more than 10,000 people had been displaced due to the military’s airstrikes and raids on villages in the region.

Myanmar Now News

The Myanmar junta’s indiscriminate aerial bombing killed three civilians including a 7-year-old girl in a displacement camp in Kayah State’s Hpruso Township early on Monday.

The junta extended into northern Hpruso the air raids and artillery attacks it has been conducting against the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force—an armed group resisting the military junta—in Demoso and the state capital Loikaw since early this month.

The three victims—a 7-year-old girl, an 18-year-old woman and a man in his 50s—were killed when at least two helicopter gunships dropped four bombs at around 1:15 a.m. on Monday, according to a Hpruso resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

They were from Moso Village, where the charred bodies of at least 35 civilians were found on Dec. 24 after a raid by junta soldiers. Residents of Moso and nearby villages are taking shelter at the displacement camp, which hosts some 600 people.

The 7- and 18-year-olds were sisters. The girl suffered serious stomach wounds and the older sister’s body was severed in two. The man was struck in the back by shrapnel that pierced his chest, said the resident.

He added that there was no fighting between the junta and resistance groups in Hpruso’s Ree Khee Buu Village, where the IDPs were taking shelter at the time of the airstrikes. Junta aircraft had been seen continuously hovering above the villages and towns in the area, he said, adding that more than likely the junta was capturing drone footage.

More civilians were displaced in the western part of Hpruso following the Moso incident and the continuous artillery attacks in nearby areas, with more than 6,000 locals having been forced to flee, according to the Hpruso resident.

The junta has intensified its airstrikes in Myanmar’s smallest state, where many of the some 300,000 population have taken up arms to fight against the military dictatorship, following the junta’s lethal crackdown on peaceful anti-regime protesters in the wake of the Feb. 1 coup. More than half of Kayah State’s population has been internally displaced since May.

The junta attacked with aircraft in Loikaw’s Nanmekhon town and Monglon ward, following shootouts in Monglon on Sunday morning that inflicted heavy casualties on the junta troops, said the Demoso Township’s People’s Defense Force (PDF), which took part in the fight.

After more than a week of junta attacks from both air and ground, over half of Loikaw’s residents have fled their homes and are seeking refuge in nearby Shan State and in central Myanmar towns.

U Htay, a Loikaw resident, said, “We have seen fighter jets firing into empty homes after [earlier] airstrikes on Jan. 8, Jan. 12 and Jan. 16, as many people have left the capital since last week. The aircraft circle above the town all the time,” he said.

The military junta’s Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services released a statement on Sunday stating that during their “security operations”, regime forces cracked down on local PDF groups with artillery and aircraft in Loikaw’s Monglon ward and Nanmekhon town on Sunday afternoon.

It said, “The Tatmadaw [Myanmar’s military] attacked the terrorists with the air supporting fire and artillery fire,” accusing the PDFs of taking refuge in homes in Mongla ward, distributing ammunition in Nanmekhon and recruiting people.

Residents were leaving despite the junta setting up many military checkpoints in Loikaw and strictly checking people in and out of the capital.

U Htay also planned to leave his home on Monday, as the artillery fire could be heard continuously. He was among those who stayed in the town until Monday hoping the conflict would cease. The junta has also cut off electricity and Internet communication in the capital, forcing him to flee and leave behind all his possessions.

“The capital is now becoming a ghost town with no movement there. The situation is going back to the era where we had to fear everything,” he added.

Irrawaddy News