This content was first published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
Around one-third of the area’s homes have been destroyed in three days of intense battle between rebels and coup troops, according to residents who reported on Monday. About 20 000 civilians have fled a town in northern Myanmar’s Magway region.
The coup is losing ground as the legal battle enters its fifth full time, according to the extreme fighting in the heartland town of Pwintbyu.
People who have fled Pwintbyu and are now in the town, which is near the Rakhine pile range, reported to RFA Burmese that fighting started to worsen on Saturday, causing them to escape from 10 villages.
Ma De, a villager in one of the villages, claimed that their residents had fled their homes on Saturday and were now “facing some difficulties.”
” Unfortunately, we had to leave behind our kids, who are over 80 years old, as they refused to escape with us”, said the citizen who, like some interviewed for this report, spoke with RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
” Really some people remain in our community. We’ve been making makeshift tents ourselves, and both young and old now live in temporary huts on fields.
He said “almost everyone in the settlements had fled”, and that, for cattle farmers, feeding their left-behind animals “has become a problem”.
” After the battle broke out, about 100 out of 300 homes in Ma De town were burned down”, he said. The harvested wheat and sunflower crops were likewise ruined by fire.
People claimed that coup troops have been preventing displaced civilians from entering the area at checkpoints.
Junta troops improve
Following junta infantry regiments No. 253, 254, and 255 advanced on Pwintbyu in three columns from their base in Salin township, around 27 kilometers ( 17 miles ) to the north, according to an official with the anti-junta People’s Defense Force, or PDF.
Anyar Thar, the Minbu District PDF’s news and information agent, claimed that Ma De villagers were shot and killed by coup troops on Saturday during the battle.
He claimed that around 20 coup soldiers were killed in new clashes, despite RFA’s inability to independently verify the claim.
Among the File organizations involved in the conflict were the No. 1 and No. 1 from the towns of Myaing and Pauk. 6 and 4 regiments of Minbu, the JOKER Guerrilla Force, the Fresh Force PDF, the Sidoktaya PDF and the Earthquake PDF.
According to the Earthquake File director, who also declined to be identified, rebel forces also carried out attacks on “other military sections” on police stations in Pwintbyu’s Me Za Li community and Minbu’s Allow Pa Taw villages.
He claimed that the police station was bombed before ambushing its support column while traveling. ” At the moment, the battle is also intensifying”.
A Magway tenant who has ties to the rebel forces in the area claimed that the groups are” striving to conquer the area from the military junta,” implying that “victory is within our reach.”
Rebel options say battle is intensifying in the Magway cities of Pa Dan, Mindon, Saw, Gangaw, and Htee Lin, near the borders of Rakhine and Chin state.
Efforts by RFA to touch Myo Myint, the regime’s social affairs secretary and spokeswoman for Magway area, went unanswered Monday.
