Fifteen to 20 villagers, including several teenagers, have been killed in some of Myanmar’s deadliest fighting between government troops and resistance forces since July, a rural and independent media report said.
The fighting began on Thursday near Gangav Basti in the north-western Magway region, Two days after the call for a nationwide revolt National Unity was issued by the Government, an opposition organization that seeks to coordinate resistance to military rule.
A resident told the Associated Press over the phone that fighting broke out in Myin Thar and five other nearby villages when more than 100 soldiers in four military vehicles arrived to secure the area.
Members of a lightly armed village self-defense militia gave warnings but could not stop soldiers from entering the area and the fighting continued after that, said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his personal safety. Of.
The movement of opposition against which stood up The army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February Initially peaceful, but gradually started fighting back after the security forces used deadly force to break the non-violent protest.
The national unity government’s call on Tuesday for a “defensive war of the people” has received an encouraging response on social media, but its true impact on the ground remains difficult to measure.
Media sympathetic to the opposition reported small-scale shootings and sabotage by the resistance, particularly the demolition of mobile phone transmission towers.
But similar activities have been taking place for several months and it is difficult to independently verify the details.
The villager describing the new fight said that at least 11 members of the self-defense group were killed, others in his village told him. Photos described as his body circulated widely on the Internet on Friday, and were clear enough to be recognizable to those familiar to him.
“We only have handcrafted guns and percussion firearms,” said Villager. “When it rained, the guns became useless. The imbalance in arms has resulted in many casualties.” Myanmar’s government troops are well equipped with modern weapons and have air and artillery support.
The villager said other residents told him that most of the members of the village’s defense force were youths and that five of those killed were students of class 9th and 10th. The villager said that a middle school teacher has also been murdered.
He said members of more than 2,000 households in the area had fled into the forest, while soldiers camped in abandoned houses and a local Buddhist monastery. Four more people were confirmed dead and several houses were burnt after fighting resumed on Friday morning, he said.
Independent media reports put the death toll among the villagers at 20 or more. Khit Thit Media, an online news service, said villagers reported that the dead included seven non-combatants besides terrorists.
According to the Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that maintains detailed counts of those killed or detained by the military government, 1,058 activists and bystanders have been killed since February’s military takeover.
The government claimed this week that resistance forces were responsible for 933 deaths, Popular News reported, citing Deputy Interior Minister Gen Sou Tint Naying.
In a briefing on Thursday for foreign diplomats attending the news service, So Tint Naying said those killed included security personnel, civil servants and people believed to be government informers.