Three men found dead after attack on Myanmar military convoy

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Junta forces travelling north to Tamu in Sagaing Region detained the three victims after being hit by a series of explosions

Three men who were abducted after an attack on a military convoy in Sagaing Region’s Tamu Township last Thursday were found dead the following day, according to resistance sources.

The men, who were all in their late 20s, were travelling between the villages of Khum Mun Nun and Yan Lin Hpai, about 20km south of the town of Tamu, when several explosions hit the convoy in the same area, the sources said.

“They were taken hostage soon after the attack and were interrogated all night until they were shot dead in the morning,” an officer of the Tamu People’s Defence Force (PDF) told Myanmar Now.

The victims were identified as Pao Tin Thang and Hao Len Mang, both from Yan Lin Hpai, and Sei Kho Thang, a resident of Khum Mun Nun.

Their bodies were discovered near Nan Mun Tar, a village about 2km from Khum Mun Nun, on Friday morning, local sources reported.

According to the Tamu PDF officer, the 13-vehicle convoy was heading north from Kalay Township when it was hit by a series of explosions on Thursday.

“We managed to land direct hits on two of the military vehicles, which were thrown into the air,” he said, adding that around 15 of the roughly 100 troops travelling with the convoy were killed.

Myanmar Now has been unable to independently confirm these figures.

The Tamu PDF officer said that regime forces fired a number of random shots after the incident, but no other casualties were reported.

The next day, the convoy continued on to Pan Thar, a village about 15km from Tamu, after leaving Khum Mun Nun in the morning, according to the Tamu PDF officer.

Troops stationed in Tamu also later arrived in Pan Thar following attacks on members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia based in the village, he added.

Tamu Township, which borders India, has seen frequent attacks on regime forces sent into the area to suppress local resistance groups.

Local residents said that the three men killed last week were among many civilians displaced by the conflict and forced to flee across the border into India. 

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Two more civilians brutally murdered near Letpadaung copper mining project

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The men, believed to have been captured by junta troops, are found dismembered following a Myanmar military raid on a nearby village in Sagaing’s Salingyi Township

Locals found the mutilated bodies of two men near the Letpadaung copper mining project in Sagaing Region’s Salingyi Township on Wednesday morning following a military raid on a nearby village. 

The deceased were identified as Tin Soe, 50, and Pwa Gyi, 40, of Moe Gyo Pyin village, which was attacked by a column of some 70 junta soldiers on Tuesday. 

“Tin Soe was decapitated and both of Pwa Gyi’s hands were cut off from the wrist,” said a villager who saw the bodies. “There were also so many knife wounds on Tin Soe’s body… Intestines were also falling out of Pwa Gyi’s stomach.”

Locals said that it was likely that Tin Soe and Pwa Gyi were killed by the same military unit that raided and shelled Moe Gyo Pyin.

“It seems that they were captured inside the village, taken outside, and then tortured and killed. I think they were killed in the same place where they were found,” said the local man, referring to a field located near Moe Gyo Pyin.

Villagers cremated the bodies on Wednesday morning. 
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Smoke is seen rising from Moe Gyo Pyin village on June 21 following  (Supplied)

Smoke is seen rising from Moe Gyo Pyin village on June 21 following  (Supplied)

An officer in the Young People’s Force, a Salingyi-based resistance group, said that in retaliation for the military’s assault on Moe Gyo Pyin, they had ambushed three junta police outposts guarding the Letpadaung mining project, the fenced boundary of which is located just across the road from the village. It is jointly operated by China’s Wanbao Mining and the military conglomerate Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL).

“We attacked them because they torched Moe Gyo Pyin, unprovoked,” he said, adding that an estimated two-thirds of the village’s 280 households were destroyed in the raid.

A local in the Letpadaung area said he saw the village burning at around 4pm on Tuesday, and that the attacks by resistance fighters began soon after. 

“The defence forces attacked them from Se Te Zee Taw, located south of the copper mining project, as soon as smoke started coming out of the village. We also heard gunshots and heavy artillery shells coming from there,” he told Myanmar Now. 

The soldiers reportedly took hostages in Moe Gyo Pyin but later released them. They also raided Se Te Zee Taw—eight miles away—where they occupied a monastery and held some 20 villagers as of Wednesday morning. 

Since military assaults in the Letpadaung area intensified last month, thousands of locals from at least 15 villages have been displaced. 

In late May, two men from Salingyi’s Ywar Thar village who had fled the junta offensives were found murdered after being detained by Myanmar army soldiers. Severe injuries indicated that they had been tortured. 

They were identified as employees of the Myanmar branch of Wanbao subsidiary Yangtse Copper Co Ltd, which jointly operates two other copper mines with UMEHL: Sabetaung and Kyisintaung, known as the S&K mines.

A coalition of local resistance forces active in Salingyi and neighbouring Yinmabin Township released a joint statement in April calling on the Wanbao and Yangtse companies to halt their operations at the Letpadaung and S&K mining sites by early May, accusing them of propping up the coup regime. 

A column of around 100 junta troops has since been stationed near the Yangtse Copper Co office and linked to assaults on multiple villages in the area, as well as ongoing clashes with guerrilla forces. 

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Myanmar army troops set fire to Catholic church in Karenni State

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A column from LID 66 torched and mined the religious site after suffering casualties in clashes with area resistance forces, a KNDF spokesperson says

The military torched a Catholic church in Demoso Township, Karenni (Kayah) State, on Wednesday and laid landmines in the surrounding area before leaving, the spokesperson for a local resistance force said.

Junta forces occupied the church compound in Daw Ngay Khu in the morning, and within hours had set fire to the main worship building, the community hall and the priest’s home, according to the information officer for the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF). 

“There was a clash. They came into the village and began to set up a base in the church compound. They torched the church when they left,” he told Myanmar Now. 

Since June 10, intense battles have been taking place between the military and allied Karenni resistance forces around Daw Ngay Khu, which is located along the highway connecting Demoso to the state capital of Loikaw, some 10 miles north.

The KNDF estimated that at least 10 junta soldiers were killed in the recent episodes of fighting near the village. 

The junta column that suffered the casualties was the same unit that destroyed the church on Wednesday, the KNDF information officer said, noting that the troops belonged to Light Infantry Division (LID) 66 and departed for the town of Hpruso after mining the area. 

“They set up landmines in the grass fields outside the church compound. We can’t tell how many there are but there are definitely more than 10 and we can’t defuse them,” he explained, 

One day before the assault on the church, the troops in question also torched four homes in Daw Ngay Khu. 

The military council has repeatedly denied responsibility for arson attacks on homes and religious buildings nationwide. 
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A member of the KNDF is seen walking past a burning building within the church compound in Daw Nyay Khu after a junta attack (KNDF)

A member of the KNDF is seen walking past a burning building within the church compound in Daw Nyay Khu after a junta attack (KNDF)

The KNDF spokesperson described the destruction in Daw Ngay Khu as part of a larger pattern of attacks that escalated in the region in early June. Military columns from Loikaw and Hpruso have targeted at least five villages in Demoso in what he speculated was an attempt to drive out resistance forces along the north-south highway that runs through Karenni State.

“The main reason is that they want to seize control of the Demoso-Hpruso-Bawlakhe-Hpasawng road so that they can send supplies and soldiers [through the area] more easily,” the information officer said. 

Since June 9, at least 22 junta soldiers have been killed in battles with guerrilla forces in Loikaw, Demoso and Hpruso townships, according to the KNDF. 

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the number of casualties. 

In May of last year, four people were killed and eight seriously injured when the military fired heavy artillery at a Catholic church near Loikaw where displaced locals were taking shelter. 

Karenni religious leaders reported soon after that eight churches had been damaged or destroyed by junta bombs in Karenni and southern Shan states, challenging the military’s claims that their troops had not intentionally targeted the sites.  

“There’s no way they shot these churches by mistake. For one thing, they’re on big compounds that are very easy to identify by their buildings. And we’ve set up white flags at every church,” a priest told Myanmar Now at the time.

Across the country in Thantlang, Chin State, the Baptist church—the town’s oldest building—was reportedly burned down by junta forces on June 9, one of more than 60 religious sites destroyed in the state since the February 2021 coup, according to the Chin Human Rights Organisation.

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Two youths killed as bomb blasts hit Yangon

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Explosions were reported in at least five townships in the city on Thursday, days after a similar series of blasts in Mandalay

Two youths were killed in Yangon’s Dagon and South Dagon townships on Thursday, allegedly while they were carrying out out bomb attacks on regime targets.

The first incident occurred on Ayeyar Wun Road in South Dagon at around 7am, according to residents of the area.

“I heard the sound of motorcycles, then around 10 gunshots, while I was praying in the morning,” said one woman who lives in the nearby Innwa Housing complex.

“I later heard that a young man was shot and killed,” she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to the woman, the victim was shot while being pursued by police who suspected him of planting a bomb. She added that blasts had been heard coming from the direction of Joe Phyu Street, which is also in the same area.

About three hours later, another explosion was reported on Bo Yar Nyunt Street in Dagon, this time killing a young man believed to have been responsible for the blast.

“Only one person was killed in the explosion on Bo Yar Nyunt Street. I was told the victim was the bomber himself,” a police source told Myanmar Now.

A photo of the victim’s badly injured body has circulated widely on social media.

Residents of Yangon’s Insein, Dala, and North Okkalapa townships also reported explosions on Thursday, but details were not available at the time of reporting.

The blasts occurred amid rumours that two of Myanmar’s most prominent political prisoners, veteran activist Ko Jimmy and former MP Phyo Zayar Thaw, were due to be executed along with two other condemned prisoners on Thursday morning.

A member of a Yangon-based urban guerrilla force confirmed that the two men killed on Thursday were members of their group, but declined to provide further details.

Earlier in the week, three explosions hit junta targets in Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay.

The first blast hit a ward administration office in Maha Aungmyay Township at around 2pm on Tuesday, residents of the area told Myanmar Now. No casualties were reported.

Later the same day, at around 5pm, another explosion was reported in the same township targeting a junta-appointed ward administrator named Nyunt Win. Local sources said that he escaped unscathed, but others in his home were injured.

The third blast, which also occurred in Maha Aungmyay Township at around the same time as the second, targeted a military truck carrying wounded soldiers.

“I heard that two of them were injured, but I personally think the actual count could be higher,” said one witness, adding that the explosion did extensive damage to the vehicle.

A Mandalay-based guerrilla group called Generation Z Power claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Ten more civilians killed in Myanmar army push to seize control of Sagaing

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Locals describe the capture of villagers—including children—by junta soldiers who force them to serve as human shields and porters before they are murdered

Junta forces reportedly killed 10 villagers, including two children, in recent days in Sagaing Region, where the military continues to carry out fierce assaults on the civilian population in an attempt to overpower the resistance stronghold. 

Eight of the victims were from Ta Ohn, a village five miles east of Shwebo Township’s administrative centre, which was attacked and looted by a 100-soldier column on June 9. Embedded in the unit were members of the Pyu Saw Htee militia, armed and trained by the Myanmar army, locals said. 

The bodies of seven villagers were not found until Monday, in a stream more than one mile away from the community where they lived. 

“The bodies were badly decomposed. I think they shot them on the hill and dragged them into the swamp,” a villager told Myanmar Now, adding that locals were unable to retrieve and bury the corpses due to the continued junta occupation of the area. 

The victims, who are believed to have been forced to act as human shields and porters for the military column, were identified as Thein Tan, 50; Kyaw Lin, 45; Sein Mahn, Maung Htoo and Win Shwe, all aged 40; Pho Htoo, who was in his 30s; and 20-year-old Ye Wai Lin. 

Another local man, 50-year-old Hnin Maung, was shot dead and his body burned inside Ta Ohn, the villager said, citing eyewitnesses.  

Locals explained that the troops detained multiple residents at the village’s monastery, including women and children. Myanmar Now was unable to confirm the total number of civilians who were abducted. 

“The villagers had nowhere to run when the military entered, firing their guns. They captured everyone that fled and made them stay inside the village. That’s how they detained so many people,” another villager said. 

He said that at least nine of those who were taken by the junta were forced to carry supplies on June 10 and 11 while soldiers raided the neighbouring villages of Ohn Pauk, Maung Tat, Ti Pin and finally Se Gyi, where they were last seen alive by eyewitnesses on June 12.

There, the troops torched five homes identified by the accompanying Pyu Saw Htee members as allegedly belonging to members of the local anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF), a Se Gyi resident told Myanmar Now. 

“Everyone had to flee. Some fled on carts while some fled on motorcycles. We had to leave everything behind as they started firing heavy weapons,” he said. “I don’t think words can do justice for what I’m feeling right now. I want revenge but I have no weapon in my hands. It’s really heartbreaking and I feel powerless.”

The seven men from Ta Ohn are believed to have been killed at a site one mile from the village of Se Gyi. The identities of the remaining two individuals who were captured with them were not known at the time of reporting, as well as whether they were still alive. 

Mawlaik Township

Two other murders took place in northwestern Sagaing’s Mawlaik Township, where teenagers staying in an IDP camp near Ma Gyi Tan village were abducted in a junta raid on the site on June 8 and subsequently killed, their bodies found later that day. 

“The children were captured and forced to carry the soldiers’ bags and guide them around the area before ultimately getting killed,” a 50-year-old woman from the area told Myanmar Now. 

They were identified as Sithu and Phyo, both in ninth grade, but whose exact ages were not known. 

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Mawlaik PDF members are seen undergoing training in April of this year (Mawlaik PDF)

Mawlaik PDF members are seen undergoing training in April of this year (Mawlaik PDF)

Moe Di, spokesperson for the Mawlaik PDF—which clashed with the junta column in question on the day of the raid on the camp—confirmed the death of the two boys, saying that their bodies were found with knife wounds and their hands tied behind their backs. 

Myanmar Now was unable to obtain photos of the victims due to the ongoing military-imposed internet blackout on much of Sagaing. 

The military unit combined with another coming from Kalay to the south, forming a new column of some 150 troops in Mawlaik on June 10 before focusing their assaults on villages on the western shore of the Chindwin River, Moe Di explained. 

A PDF member was killed in a battle which took place with the Myanmar army that day, but the resistance group was not able to inflict any casualties, the spokesperson said, adding that his fighters were forced by heavy artillery fire to retreat. 

“We had to withdraw because there was no way for us to defend against such a weapon,” Moe Di said, adding that clashes were still ongoing at the time of reporting.

Hundreds of homes were burned by the military over the next four days, including almost all of the residences in the village of Ma Gyi Tan, as well as houses in Yuwa and Tat Kone, locals said. 

Some 5,000 residents from a total of five communities were forced to flee the arson attacks—which the military has repeatedly denied perpetrating nationwide—to the eastern shores of the Chindwin.

The telecommunication cuts have meant that an assessment of the extent of the damage was still ongoing at the time of reporting. 

Depayin Township

A 30-year-old man in Depayin Township narrowly escaped death during a military raid on his village of Muu Kan Gyi on Tuesday, describing to Myanmar Now how he hid and witnessed more than 75 troops burning 200 other residences. 

“I could see them from the house I was hiding in. They seemed to be enjoying torching the houses,” he said. 

The building in which he had sought refuge reportedly failed to catch fire. 

“One of the army officers they called Kyaw Tun gave them permission to burn the house and two soldiers came inside to torch it,” the man recalled. “I could smell alcohol on them while I was hiding under the bed. I would have been killed if they found me.”

He emerged after the troops left the following morning to find that his own house had been destroyed, along with his food stores. 

“I wish nothing but death on them,” he said of the junta troops. “They’re funded by our tax money, and they are terrorising us.”

Locals said that the same junta column that torched Muu Kan Kyi had previously burned the villages of Ywar Soe and Pauk Chaing in neighbouring Shwebo Township over the weekend, and had gone on to occupy the communities of Ti Pin and Htoo Gyi, all located along the eastern bank of the Muu River. 

A local anti-junta defence force, Min Ma Naing Thein Nghat, reportedly tried to drive out the unit from the village of Ye Kyi Wa, across the Muu River from Muu Kan Gyi—which is situated on the western shore—but they ultimately were forced to retreat by the difference in firepower, the guerrilla group’s leader said. 

“They relentlessly fired both 60mm and 40mm shells at us from the other side of the river. That’s why we had to withdraw,” he told Myanmar Now, adding that a 30-year-old resistance fighter was killed in the clash. 

The leader emphasised the need for the civilian National Unity Government to arm forces like Min Ma Naing Thein Nghat, noting that there was only one gun for every three members of his group. 

“We have to face the junta with handmade rifles and 10 to 15 bullets while 100 percent of the junta personnel are armed with a rifle each,” he explained. “If only they could arm us properly, there isn’t any reason we wouldn’t win over the military.”

Reporting by Thura Maung, Khin Yi Yi Zaw and Ko Cho

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