Myanmar resistance forces rescue hundreds of hostages; dozens found dead

Resistance forces say they freed as many as 300 civilians and discovered the bodies of at least 40 others following a rescue operation carried out in Bago Region’s Nyaunglebin Township over the weekend. The hostages, from villages located near the town of Pein Za Loke, were rounded up last Thursday (March 5) during a series of pre-dawn raids conducted by four junta columns of around 100 troops each, sources said. Some were held at a monastery in one of the targeted villages, where dozens were reportedly killed during the raids by junta artillery and aerial assaults. “They forced the detained villagers into Kyaukone monastery, which was hit by bombs dropped from aircraft,” said a military source familiar with the situation, adding that some of the victims appeared to have been shot. In a statement released on Monday, the National Unity Government (NUG) said the dead included elderly people, three children, and a pregnant woman. “The terrorist junta is fully responsible for this incident involving the deaths of civilians. They took them as hostages, they beat them, and they killed them. They used them as human shields and placed them in target areas,” said Saw Do Shin, information officer for the NUG-led People’s Defence Force (PDF) Region 2. To rescue the remaining hostages, PDF and allied Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) forces launched attacks on junta troops in Kyaukone and Yae Twin Kone, a nearby village where many were being held in a house surrounded by earthen barricades. The attacks, carried out March 7-8, forced the regime soldiers to temporarily retreat, allowing some hostages to flee to safety, while others were rescued by the resistance forces, a PDF source told Myanmar Now. Another source close to the PDF’s Bago Region military command said that eight PDF fighters and one member of the KNLA were killed in the fighting. “We carried out an operation to rescue civilians who were trapped as hostages in Yae Twin Kone and Kyaukone. More than 300 people were freed. The operation lasted two consecutive nights,” the source said. Currently, there are no villagers still being detained. However, junta troops are reportedly stationed in Yae Twin Kone, Kyaukone, and Wetche, another village in the area, according to sources close to the PDF fighters involved in the rescue. There are fierce clashes taking place between Yae Twin Kone and Kyaukone, the sources said. The junta troops involved in the raids launched their operation from Pein Za Loke, a small town located on the Yangon-Mandalay highway. According to the Bago Region command, the four columns that took part in last week’s raids included troops from Light Infantry Division 77 based in Bago, as well as units from Infantry Battalion 20 based in Nyaunglebin, Infantry Battalion 264 based in Pein Za Loke, and Infantry Battalion 439 based in Kanyutkwin. Nyaunglebin District in eastern Bago Region falls in the territory of Karen National Union Brigade 3.

Myanmar resistance forces rescue hundreds of hostages; dozens found dead

Junta troops had detained the civilians during a series of raids on villages in Bago Region’s Nyaunglebin Township late last week

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