Four men—two resistance fighters and two locals—were captured by the military and decapitated during a four-day assault on villages in Tanintharyi Township that ended this weekend, according to local sources.
As a junta column raided the village of Taku on May 18, local defence forces reportedly launched a counterattack against the unit, leading to a series of battles in the area that lasted through Saturday.
Two members of the Southern Warriors Defence Force (SWDF) were among those slain, as well as two men from nearby Ban Pyae village, in the same tract as Taku, an officer from another guerrilla group told Myanmar Now.
Two other villagers were also said to have been shot and killed by Myanmar army soldiers during the fighting: a 10-year-old child with an intellectual disability, and a 30-year-old man.
Further information about the victims was not available at the time of reporting.
The SWDF claimed that there were at least five junta casualties as well.
The officer in the local resistance force described the military’s attack on Taku, which involved days of bombardment with heavy artillery, as employing “excessive force.”
“The residents of Taku village had to flee as the military relentlessly shelled the village. They’ve also been threatening to shoot dead anyone who they see as they continue to torch and destroy houses there,” the officer said. He added that guerrilla forces also had to abandon a temporary base they had set up in the village.
A teacher from the neighbouring community of Thar Rabwin said that residents of her village were also displaced by the shelling of Taku and the surrounding area.
“I was still in the village before the battle started. They fired so many artillery shells—I think they fired more than 30 rounds,” she said, noting that the junta troops were positioned on a nearby hill.
The Myanmar army column arrived in Thar Rabwin on May 20 and set fire to several homes, including hers, she told Myanmar Now.
A volunteer assisting internally displaced persons in the area said that residents of some 20 villages had fled.
“The locals had to seek refuge in other nearby villages that the military’s shells couldn’t reach,” he explained, adding that heavy rains and a lack of food were proving to be major challenges.
Locals and members of resistance groups in Tanintharyi speculated that the military launched the offensive to crush chapters of the People’s Defence Force, a network of resistance groups fighting under the National Unity Government (NUG) against the junta.
Outgunned by the Myanmar army, they have reportedly been waiting in the region for the NUG to provide them with arms.
