Myanmar rebels kill 12 women from pro-military village: report

Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese.

Rebel forces in central Myanmar ambushed a vehicle near a junta stronghold killing 12 women on their way to work in nearby fields, military-controlled media reported on Wednesday. 

No group claimed responsibility for the Tuesday attack in the Sagaing region but anti-junta activists there have set up groups, known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, that launch ambushes and raids on military posts in their campaign against the junta that seized power in 2021.

The women were on their way to work near Kywei Pon village when attackers opened fire with guns and a rocket launcher, the Myanmar Alin newspaper reported. Three wounded women were being treated in hospital.

Armed people in the women’s vehicle returned fire before soldiers arrived, said one Kywei Pon resident, who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

“Not long after the junta army arrived and took the injured away with emergency vehicles,” said the resident.

There was no information about any casualties among the attackers.

Many supporters of the junta, including members of militias that help the military, live in Kywei Pon so PDFs attack it often, the resident added.

One PDF member in Sagaing, who also declined to be identified for saety reasons, told Radio Free Asia that anti-junta forces were not involved in the attack although he acknowledged he did not know details of the incident.

The military was mounting security operations in response, the Myanmar Alin reported. Residents said the military fired artillery into Taung Kyar village nearby in the belief that PDF members were stationed there. There were no reports of casualties. 

Residents of other villages in the vicinity fled from their homes late on Tuesday in fear of more attacks by junta forces, residents said.

Sagaing has seen some of Myanmar’s worst violence since the military took power three years ago, with clashes and airstrikes killing hundreds. Thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting.

Seven of Sagaing’s PDFs, which are loosely organized under a civilian shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, are under investigation by the NUG for alleged human rights violations.

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Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.