Junta airstrikes and attacks kill at least seven civilians in Magway Region

Junta airstrikes and attacks have killed at least seven civilians, including a monk, in Myanmar's Magway Region since March 9, according to local sources.An airstrike hit a monastery near Gway Kone Village, Salin Township, on Monday morning, killing a 76-year-old monk and injuring two others, the township's National Unity Government (NUG) administrative team reported.“A monk sustained severe injuries and died at the clinic,” a representative from the township’s administrative team told Myanmar Now. “Two other men in their 20s are receiving medical attention, but are not in critical condition.”Sources say the monastery in Gway Kone Village, an area under resistance control, was used as a shelter for displaced people. Two warplanes targeted the village after a junta column raided three villages on the opposite bank of Salin Stream, according to a source close to resistance forces.Before advancing toward Lin Zin Village on Monday, the same junta column set fire to at least five houses in Nga Lin Pan and Auk Hlaing villages, northwest of the junta-controlled town of Salin. Junta warplanes also bombed a monastery in Kin Mun Chon Village, about 22 miles northwest of Salin, killing a 57-year-old man and injuring three others, including a pregnant woman, sources told Myanmar Now. “It’s just a charred village now,” a representative with the local People Administrative Team, who requested anonymity, said. “There were no gatherings in the village.” At least four people were killed in Kya Pin Village on Saturday, following a raid conducted by junta troops on a section of Salin-Seikphyu Highway in Salin Township.After the junta column left the area, some villagers made a grim discovery. “We found four bodies in a toilet pit inside a school compound in Kya Pin Village,” another source told Myanmar Now. “The bodies were covered with lacerations on their necks and faces.” A column of junta troops departed from Sin Phyu Kyun, a town less than five miles north of Salin on March 8. Shortly after leaving, the group conducted raids on three villages in retaliation for resistance attacks.“Seven men were detained by junta troops when soldiers camped in Kya Pin Village,” a source close to the resistance said. “They released two detainees while four were killed. One detainee managed to escape when resistance forces launched drone attacks on them.” In a separate incident on March 12, regime troops killed a woman in an arson attack in Salin Township. The junta set fire to at least 80 houses in Nay Pu Khan and over 200 in Koke Ko Tan before retreating the area on March 16.Junta raids between March 8 and 16 displaced at least 17,000 people across 24 villages across Salin Township. The recent wave of violence in Salin Township highlights the junta’s escalating tactics, leaving behind a trail of displacement, destruction, and death. “Detainees were tortured before being killed by junta troops,” the resistance source said. “Those who went to the scene said they found pools of blood in a room inside the school building where the detainees had been held and interrogated.”

Junta airstrikes and attacks kill at least seven civilians in Magway Region

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