The site of Htan Gyi village on Monday. / Pyay Kyaw / 96 Soldiers resistance group
Myanmar junta troops have burned down a Wetlet Township village in Sagaing Region and killed four residents, according to resistance groups.
Troops, police and militia allies began raiding villages in southern Wetlet on Saturday. They clashed with a resistance group in Paukkan village and then burned down Htan Gyi village.
“Those killed by the soldiers are all under 30. One is from Paukkan and the other three are from Htan Gyi. They were just civilians,” said Ko Kyin Ko, a Shwebo District People’s Defense Force (PDF) spokesman.
“The junta is shameful. It has no dignity,” he added.
Troops torched about 400 of the 500 houses in Htan Gyi on Sunday morning, according to the group.
On Monday troops raided Kyaung Phyu village on the border between Wetlet and Sagaing townships when clashes with the resistance broke out.
Shwebo PDF, Dawn Sitt Thi, Taw Gyi Mwe Pway, the Sky Revolutionary Force and Anyar Division attacked the raiding party, inflicting five deaths and many injuries on junta forces, according to the resistance groups.
The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the reports.
Troops burned down five Kyaung Phyu houses and looted other homes, the resistance groups said.
Ko Kyin Ko said approximately 200 soldiers, police and militia members are based at Wetlet’s police station and deploying into villages. He said fighting was reported in at least five areas on Tuesday.
Thousands of villagers have fled their homes for other villages and forests and are in need of food, he said.
