When the young farmhand returned to his village in Myanmar, he found the still-smoldering corpses in a circle in a burned-out hut, some with their limbs tied.
The Myanmar military had stormed Done Taw at 11am on Dec. 7, with about 50 soldiers hunting people on foot, he said.
The farmhand and other villagers fled to the forest and fields, but 10 were captured and killed, including five teenagers, one who was only 14, he said. A photo taken by his friend shows the charred remains of a victim lying face down, holding his head up, suggesting he was burned alive.
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The massacres and scorched-earth tactics represent the latest escalation in the military's violence against both civilians and the growing opposition to the military's February coup.