Seven people have been killed in fighting in a village in Myanmar’s Magway region, where homes were set on fire in an attack intended as revenge for the executions of prominent pro-democracy figures, according to state media and anti-junta militia.
Eight local People’s Defense Force groups raided the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia-occupied village in Pauk township early on Tuesday in revenge for the weekend executions of four democracy activists, a statement from the PDF groups said.
Former student leader Ko Jimmy, former National League for Democracy MP Phyo Zeya Thaw, and two other democracy activists, were hanged Saturday in Yangon’s Insein prison – the first judicial executions in decades. That has further fueled opposition to the military council that seized power from an elected government in February 2021.
A PDF officer said the village, Tat Kone, had strong leanings towards pro-junta militias and locals were heavily armed.
“Fighting started at 5.30 a.m. and continued beyond 7 a.m.,” said the officer-in-charge of the Southern Pauk Guerrilla Force, who did not give his name for security reasons.
A PDF news release on Tuesday named the attack “Operation Zeya Thaw.”
It said eight joint PDFs, including the Southern Pauk Guerrilla Force, banded together to launch the attack. It said the seven people killed were from Pyu Saw Htee militia.
A video posted on Facebook, credited to the guerrilla force, showed the attack underway in the early morning. Militiamen can be seen running across a farm field and crouching for cover amid the noise of heavy gunfire.
State newspapers reported Wednesday that the seven fatalities were civilians, including two members of the village defense force and two children, and that 41 houses were burned down. Kyemon Daily newspaper printed blurred photos of blackened corpses.
The PDFs said they had warned the public about the attacks in advance and civilians had not been deliberately targeted.
This year has seen an upsurge in arson attacks and killings in Myanmar’s Magway and Sagaing regions as violence has spiraled between junta forces and PDFs.
Last month, independent research group Data For Myanmar, which studies the effects of conflict on communities, said that at least 18,886 houses had been destroyed by military arson across the country since the coup.