Junta troops set fire to more than 100 houses in a town in Mandalay

The Myanmar army has torched more than 100 houses in a village in the Mandalay region as it continues to attack civilians believed to be harboring the People’s Defense Forces.

Tuesday’s raid occurred after anti-junta militias attacked troops leaving a monastery where they had been stationed, in the Kin village of Madaya municipality, locals told RFA on condition of anonymity.

A resident said the reprisals began after the local People’s Defense Forces activated land mines as the column of around 50 soldiers was withdrawing.

“The troops set fire to the town non-stop from 9 am until night,” the local said on Wednesday.

“More than a hundred houses were set on fire. The junta troops left early this morning.”

Local defense groups said they killed five soldiers and wounded 12 with land mines and bombs dropped from drones.

Combined Mahar Revolution Force fighters; Tike Thane’s Underground Revolutionary Group; Nat Soe’s Underground Revolutionary Army; Nagar Nyi Naung People’s Defense Force; and Daung Sit The said they participated in the attack on the junta column.

RFA has not been able to independently confirm the number of soldiers killed and wounded.

Calls to the junta spokesman for the Mandalay region, Thein Htay, went unanswered.

The Junta’s Deputy Information Minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, told RFA that in the past, troops have never set fire to civilian homes. However, he said on Tuesday that the junta was behind another attack that day in which up to 100 civilians were killed in an airstrike on a Sagaing region village. He blamed the local People’s Defense Forces for hiding among civilians in that attack, saying the junta only attacked the fighters.

The junta’s slash-and-burn tactics are widespread in Myanmar and locals said the army burned down nine villages in Madaya township last month, forcing locals to flee to other villages and makeshift camps.

According to Data for Myanmar, which monitors arson attacks, a total of 60,459 homes have been destroyed by fires across the country in the two years since the February 2021 coup.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.