A man was killed and two people were injured in junta raids that began on Tuesday in Mandalay Region’s Nyaung-U Township, south of the ancient city and UNESCO World Heritage site of Bagan.
The raids, including arson attacks and the capture of a dozen civilian hostages by junta forces, took place over two days in at least five villages. Three columns of junta infantry troops conducted the raids, according to local resistance fighters.
“A man in his 40s with mental illness was tortured and shot dead after being detained by junta troops. We found his body in a field near a school in Zee Zar Hmyin village,” said a representative of the People’s Democratic Army, an anti-junta group operating in Naung U Township.
On Tuesday, around 120 junta troops advanced from a base in Taung Zin village, splitting into two columns and moving west into the villages of Chaung Shey, Ah Nauk Ohn, Pwe Taing and Zee Zar Hmyin.
Taung Zin, the village the troops advanced from, is 10 miles south of the junta-controlled town of Nyaung-U and is the site of a junta police station.
A third column of junta troops, based in Gant Gar village south of Bagan, approached Kya Oh village on Tuesday and remained near the village, stationing along the Bagan-Chauk highway.
Junta forces conducted a drone strike on an area inhabited by displaced civilians near Zee Zar Hmyin on the same day, injuring a man and child.
At least 14 people from Kyauk Kan, Chaung Shey and Zee Zar Hmyin villages have been taken captive by the junta troops, according to local sources.
On Wednesday, junta troops left Zee Zar Hmyin Village and moved southwest to Myaung Village, where they torched at least 30 houses before moving again on Thursday to Shwe Ka Hpyu village, less than two miles to the east.
A skirmish between junta troops and resistance forces broke out near Myaung village on Thursday morning, according to local resistance fighters, who said they were unable to respond in kind to the regime forces’ drone strikes.
“Our group has drone pilots, but we still don’t have drones,” a representative of the People’s Democratic Army said. “Since fighting only broke out in our area at the beginning of this year, we haven’t yet been able to form drone teams.”
In total, the army troops burned at least 100 houses in the villages of Chaung Shey, Zee Zar Hmyin, Ah Nauk Ohn, Kyauk Pyin Kan and Myaung, all on the east bank of Ayeyarwady River, according to local sources.
The troops who had captured 14 civilians freed eight of them on Thursday morning as they were leaving Myaung. The status of the remaining six captives is unconfirmed.
Since Tuesday, following the junta’s first advance into the area, more than 10,000 people from 15 villages have fled their homes in southern Nyaung U Township.
“This is the seventh time we’ve fled our home. We crossed a stream and are currently staying on a small island in the middle of the Ayeyarwady River,” a displaced farmer from Kya Oh said.
Schools in the vicinity have closed out of concern for students’ safety amid the ongoing raids, local sources said.
