Myanmar military incinerates entire village in southern Kalay

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Regime troops reduced the village of more than 800 households to ashes after clashing with resistance forces earlier in the day

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An aerial photograph shows the village of Ah Shey See on May 3, two days after it was torched by regime soldiers (CJ)
An aerial photograph shows the village of Ah Shey See on May 3, two days after it was torched by regime soldiers (CJ)

Junta troops burned a village of more than 800 households to the ground last weekend following clashes with defence forces in Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township, according to local sources.


Residents of Ah Shey See, a village located in the southern part of the township near the border with Magway Region, said that regime forces started setting fire to their homes late Sunday evening.






“They torched every house in sight. Only a few houses on the edge of the village were spared,” said a resident who asked not to be identified.


He added that the soldiers seemed intent on doing as much damage as possible, starting fires where the wind would help the flames to spread and piling tires inside homes before setting them on fire.




Aerial photographs of the village show that most of the village has been reduced to ashes. Only around 40 structures are still standing.


The attack on the village began after a full day of fighting between the Kalay People’s Defence Force (PDF) and around 200 junta troops. The clash started Sunday morning and lasted until the PDF fighters were forced to retreat at around 5pm.

Residents of the village said that the soldiers stole as much as they could from their homes before starting the fires. Stockpiles of rice were also destroyed.


“We lost two houses and two storehouses full of rice. All we have now is the clothes on our backs. But at least we escaped with our lives,” said another villager who did not want to be named.




A day after the attack on Ah Shey See, more clashes were reported near Shar Bo, another village about 3km to the south.


According to a statement released by a local defence force on Tuesday, that battle began with an attack on three junta columns and continued for two full days.


At least four regime soldiers were killed and four guns were seized, the statement claimed.


The defence force also said that it managed to shoot down an assault drone on Tuesday evening. In response, the military carried out two airstrikes, according to the statement.


An information officer for the group told Myanmar Now that the military was prevented from taking control of the village that night, but several homes had been destroyed by bombs dropped by the regime.

“Some houses were destroyed, and more were torched when the military came back later,” he said.


Fighting in southern Kalay Township has displaced thousands of local civilians. The area is near northern Magway’s Yaw region, which has also been a hotbed of resistance to the regime that seized power in a coup last year.


According to a recent report by monitor group Data for Myanmar, around 7,000 of the roughly 11,000 houses that have been torched by the military since the coup were located in Sagaing Region.

 

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