Smoke rises above Nyaung Pin Gyi village in Salingyi township on Saturday as junta troops continued to torch houses. /Anyar Pyit Taing Htaung
Myanmar junta forces torched a village in Salinggyi Township, Sagaing Region after losing its police station in a resistance raid on Friday, according to locals and resistance groups.
The daring raid on the Nyaung Pin Gyi police outpost was conducted right under the noses of regime forces at 5pm by the Kayah State-based Buffalo People’s Defense Force and the Union Liberation Front (ULF), a combined force of 18 resistance groups from three Sagaing townships.
Nyaung Pin Gyi village is located just across the Chindwin River from Monya town, where the regime’s Northwestern Command is based.
After one hour of fighting, the combined resistance force managed to seize and burn down the police base, ULF spokesperson Ko AT told The Irrawaddy on Saturday.
At least 10 regime forces and police officers were killed in the fighting, and weapons plus ammunition seized from the outpost, resistance groups said.
A video released by the groups shows bodies of regime troops at the police base. The combined group also claimed to have rescued civilian detainees from the police’s prison cell.
Regime forces had been using the police outpost as a base to raid and torch nearby settlements in the township, the resistance group said.
Most of the regime forces had left the outpost last week to join troops from Northwestern command bases and the nearby Chinese mining company Wanbao on raids of villages in Salingyi and Pale townships.
“We attacked the police base after learning that only a few regime forces were left there,”
Ko AT said.
Junta forces retaliated by launching a 30-minute airstrike on the village and resistance groups, using MI 35 helicopter gunships. Buffalo PDF member Ko Wai Yan Lin was killed in the strikes, while five other resistance members suffered injuries.
After the resistance forces retreated, junta reinforcements crossed the river and burned down homes in the village.
Local media outlets reported that regime forces continued to burn houses in the village until Saturday morning. Thousands of residents from Nyaung Pin Gyi and nearby villages have fled their homes since Friday evening.
The resistance groups requested supplies of ammunition as they plan to raid more regime bases.
