A 100-strong Military Council column from the Nam Si Aung area of Kachin state entered A Lel Seik village in southern Indaw on the morning of December 31.

The military column left the village the next day, but a local was injured due to a land mine they planted in a haystack, an official of People’s Defense Forces of Indaw (Indaw-PDF) told KNG.

The military column was ambushed by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and PDF between A Lel Seik and Me Zar villages on the morning of December 27th.

After about 20 troops were injured in the battle, regime forces retaliated by carrying out arson attacks and airstrikes on A Lel Seik village. In Indaw, on the border of Kachin state and Sagaing division, more than 100 houses were burned down by the Military Council in December, according to local sources.

The PDF official said “They burned down all the haystacks in A Lel Seik village, leaving only one.  Yesterday the villagers were threshing grain next to that haystack, when suddenly there was an explosion. The explosion injured a 21-year-old man when he was hit by shrapnel , and a threshing machine was also destroyed.”

The military column that planted the mine is currently stationed in Than Bo village, so the locals have fled according to the official from Indaw-PDF.