A series of attacks carried out on Saturday reduced one village to ashes, sources in Sagaing Region’s Khin-U Township reported

A village in Sagaing Region’s Khin-U Township was almost completely incinerated on Saturday as regime forces carried out a series of unprovoked attacks in the area over the weekend, according to local sources.

In a statement released on Saturday evening, the Khin-U Township Information Committee claimed that the military had reduced almost the entire village of Dan Kone to ashes earlier in the day.

Local residents confirmed that around 80 junta troops had been raiding villages as they entered the area from neighbouring Ye-U Township.

“I didn’t hear about any fighting. The soldiers just arrived and started setting fire to houses. Everybody fled,” a resident of Shwe Yamin, the village next to Dan Kone, told Myanmar Now.

“They started by torching three houses at the same time,” he said, adding that Dan Kone was the first village to come under attack.

A member of a local defence force said the junta soldiers also passed through the villages of Ywar Thit Kone, Padat Kone, Kone Thar, Aung Thar and Te Kone Gyi.

“There weren’t any clashes, but they kept attacking the villages. We’ve been retreating according to the conditions. We didn’t engage them at all,” he said.

The Khin-U Township Information Committee said it was unable to send photos of the damage because Myanmar’s junta had cut off internet access in the region.

The group, formed by activists opposed to last year’s coup, added that a five-year-old child had been hit by an artillery shell, and that displaced villagers were in need of emergency assistance.

Internet restrictions were imposed on 23 townships in Sagaing last Thursday. At least seven more townships in the region have since lost internet access as the regime moves to isolate areas where it is carrying out operations against resistance forces.

A day after the restrictions were first imposed, junta troops reportedly killed nine civilians and abducted a woman and two children during raids on the Sagaing villages of Min Swe Hna Swe and Muu Kan Gyi.

Myanmar’s military routinely denies targeting civilians, despite abundant evidence to the contrary. It claims that it is protecting civilians from anti-regime  “terrorists”.

Last week, local sources reported that regime soldiers and members of the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia also burned down hundreds of houses in the villages of Letpan Hla and Lel Yar, in Magway Region’s Pauk Township.

Myanmar Now News

Myanmar’s regime has cut internet access across Sagaing Region where armed resistance to the junta is strong. It is also launching airstrikes and torching villages.

Residents said the internet was down across the sprawling region’s 34 townships other than four towns and cities, denying news about the fighting.

A Tabayin resident told The Irrawaddy that the internet was cut three days ago and he heard only Sagaing, Monywa, Kale and Shwebo had access.

Internet access was cut last September in Ayadaw, Yinmabin, Kani, Pale, Ye-U, Taze and Budalin townships in the region.

The regime carried out an estimated 19 air raids on the region between last July and mid-February, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy in Myanmar.

There were clashes in 16 townships during that period and at least 140 civilians were killed by junta forces, the institute reported in February.

The junta has torched at least 6,158 civilian homes in the 13 months since the coup, mostly in areas with heavy anti-regime resistance.

Sagaing Region suffered nearly 60 percent of the damage, according to the independent Data for Myanmar research group.

Residents fear the lack of internet access will limit their ability to avoid junta raids and find shelter after being attacked.

“It is very difficult for the displaced, especially children and old people, to find safety if we don’t get the news,” said a Taze resident.

He said they had previously asked for donations on Facebook but now they are left on their own.

The regime uses airstrikes, artillery and allied Phyu Saw Htee militias to attack villages and burn houses.

Irrawaddy News

Myanmar regime forces on Sunday used aircraft to bomb Lo Bar Kho Village in Demoso Township, Kayah State, where around 3,000 internally displaced civilians (IDPs) are sheltering.

Junta airplanes dropped two bombs on the village on Sunday morning, with one falling near a clinic opened for the refugees, destroying a few buildings nearby.

A resistance fighter from Kayah State said the village is far from the frontlines of the recent fighting in the state.

“They cannot attack Lo Bar Kho Village with artillery because it is out of range, on the border of Shan and Kayah states. So, they used airplanes to drop bombs and send a warning to the refugees that there is no safe place for them within the state.”

Most of the displaced people there fled Nan Mal Kone, Pekon and Demoso. They headed for Lo Bar Kho Village thinking it would be the safest place for them.

A majority of Kayah State’s population of 200,000 people have been displaced by fighting, with clashes taking place almost daily.

A senior staffer at the Karenni State Refugee Supporting Network said the displaced people don’t dare use tarpaulin sheets as roofs for their makeshift dwellings, because junta military airplanes attack when they see blue tarpaulin roofs.

“The refugees had to run without taking any of their belongings. They didn’t dare to take tarpaulin shelters. The refugees are scattering. Some have gone into the forest,” he said. “They are in despair. They don’t know where is a safe place for them now,” he added.

The displaced people are also facing a shortage of food. The network has asked international organizations to provide emergency food supplies for the Karenni IDPs.

On Jan. 17, the junta’s indiscriminate aerial bombing killed three civilians including a 7-year-old girl in a displacement camp in Kayah State’s Hpruso Township.

Irrawaddy News