Myanmar villages in Magway Region terrorised by junta looting, airstrikes

Regime troops ransacked homes and a marketplace after failing to advance into resistance strongholds in Magway Region’s Pakokku and Pauk townships last week, while the air force’s bombing raids caused at least one death, according to locals and resistance fighters. The air force bombed Son Kone village, Pakokku Township on June 9 using a Y-12 aircraft, dropping highly explosive bombs and killing a villager despite the lack of recent fighting in the village, according to a local source. “In Son Kone village north of Kamma, an airstrike killed one civilian. Two were injured. I don’t know the names,” he said. The rest of the aerial bombing, most of which took place between June 6 and June 10 on the Pauk-Kamma road near the villages of Gyoe Pyan and Ma Gyi Thone Pin some four miles west of Kamma, Pakokku Township, came after fighting that had been ongoing in the area since the beginning of June. Clashes broke out outside Than Bo village, about five miles northwest of Kamma, near the beginning of the month between anti-regime forces and a vanguard junta convoy consisting of around 150 supply and reinforcement trucks. After their commander was killed, the junta forces retreated to Kamma on June 8, according to a member of Pakokku District Battalion 11 of the People’s Defence Forces. “They wanted to get the supply convoy through. It’s more about using civilians as human shields than assigning them as porters. That’s what's happening,” the resistance fighter said. “The air force is also continuously bombing. Paramotors, Y-12 aircrafts, jet fighters, drones--all kinds of strikes from the air,” he added. A column initially consisting of around 200 soldiers initially set out from the Light Infantry Division (LID) 101 base in Pakokku on May 27, according to local residents. More than 500 junta troops had gathered in Kamma, Pakokku Township by June 1, and the 150-vehicle supply convoy was formed. In addition to troop transport vehicles and trucks carrying armoured vehicles, the convoy included three road-clearing backhoes, with drivers who had been pressed into service but tried to escape, according to a resident of Kamma. “Those who ran were shot at and a driver died,” the Kamma resident added. Starting their advance towards Pauk on June 6, the troops were quickly forced to retreat in the face of defensive manoeuvres from resistance forces, according to the Kamma resident, and had begun breaking into houses in Kamma and ransacking the village market after they returned. “They broke into all the houses. They took everything they found. As for Kamma market, there's nothing left,” he said. “They broke everything and took whatever they wanted. Food, drinks, cooking ingredients—they took everything. Snack shops and dried goods stores were targeted. Kamma market was completely destroyed,” he said. Fearing the returning junta troops, civilians have fled their homes in Kamma and sought shelter elsewhere. However, some of the town’s elderly residents were unable to flee and remained trapped in their homes with vital supplies in the village dwindling, locals said. “Since the military column is still there, almost the whole population of Kamma has had to flee,” another Kamma resident said. “Some people trapped in town can no longer buy food.” In response to the junta offensive, thousands have fled from at least 20 villages in Pakokku and Pauk townships, locals confirmed. The armed resistance controls the towns of Pauk and Myaing and the large village of Kamma, all west of the Ayeyarwady River in Pakokku District and serving as a strategic gateway to territories controlled by anti-junta armed groups in Chin State.

Myanmar villages in Magway Region terrorised by junta looting, airstrikes

Beaten back by resistance forces while trying to move towards Pauk, junta ground forces retreated to the village of Kamma, Pakokku Township, where they looted civilians’ houses and raided the local market

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