Myanmar soldiers have torched more than 100 homes and two churches in the country’s restive north-west Chin state, local civic groups said, in scenes that have revived memories of the military’s violent 2017 assault on Rohingya Muslims.

The regime initially bombarded the town of Thantlang with heavy artillery before soldiers moved in. The assault was launched in response to Friday’s fatal shooting of a soldier by the Chinland Defence Force, one of several armed groups formed after the coup to fight the regime.

Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, has mobilised troops, equipment and supplies to northern and western Myanmar in recent weeks, foreshadowing what observers warned could be a wider offensive targeting anti-regime rebels, timed to coincide with the end of seasonal rains.