An American citizen is being wrongfully detained in junta-ruled Myanmar, a US embassy spokesperson told AFP on Friday.

"We are aware of the wrongful detention of a US citizen in Burma," the spokesperson told AFP, using the country's former name.

The US has led Western criticism of the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year and slapped sanctions on top-ranking members of the junta and military-linked companies.

Several foreigners have since been arrested in the junta's crackdown on dissent.

The spokesperson did not give details on how long the US citizen had been detained or whether they had been charged by junta authorities.

Staff were "providing all appropriate consular assistance", they said.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden opened the way for sanctions against governments that unjustly imprison Americans and ordered more detailed travel warnings after a series of high-profile detentions.

The move came after wide media coverage of the detention in Russia on drug charges of basketball star Brittney Griner, whose wife initially said Biden was not doing enough.

The US State Department, in its travel advisories for Americans, now highlights in which nations there is an elevated risk of unjust detention.

Myanmar has been included in the initial group of nations that will bear a "D" mark for detention risk, along with China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.

In an updated travel advisory, the State Department said it had determined that "at least one US national" was wrongfully detained in Myanmar.

Polish photojournalist Robert Bociaga and Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi were both detained during the early protests against the coup.

US citizen Nathan Maung was arrested in March last year during a police raid on the local media outlet he ran and charged with encouraging dissent against the military.

He was released months later.

Fellow journalist and US citizen Danny Fenster was detained in May 2021 and in November was handed an 11-year sentence for unlawful association, incitement against the military and breaching visa rules.

Days later he was pardoned and deported from Myanmar.

Myanmar villagers accuse junta troops of massacre
Bangkok (AFP) July 22, 2022 - Myanmar junta troops killed at least 10 people and torched hundreds of houses during a raid on a village as fighting rages in a hotspot of opposition to the coup, locals and media reports said.

Northwest Sagaing region has seen fierce fighting and bloody reprisals since the coup last year, with junta troops struggling to crush resistance by a local "People's Defence Force" (PDF).

On July 18, soldiers were dropped near Kyi Su village by two helicopters, one local told AFP, and around 100 people who had not fled were taken prisoner by the military.

"The elderly men were released on the following day while around 10 younger people were kept there," they said, requesting anonymity.

Villagers discovered the bodies as they returned on July 20 after soldiers had left, another resident said.

"I went to look for my animals in the forest but I found nine burnt human bodies with their hands tied," he said.

Another local, also requesting anonymity, said 10 bodies had been found and nine of them had been identified by family members.

They also said the bodies had been found with their hands tied.

At least 30 people from the village are missing, they added.

Around 400 houses in the Muslim quarter of the village had been burned to the ground and a mosque had been partly damaged by fire, said a Muslim resident who fled before troops arrived and whose house was among those torched.

"We survived, but we are displaced. When it rains we have to suffer mosquitoes and bugs," he said, also requesting anonymity.

Local media reported at least 20 charred bodies were found with their hands tied and that hundreds of houses had been torched in Kyi Su.

AFP could not verify reports from the remote region, where internet access is regularly cut by junta authorities.

A junta spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Locals and media reports have reported killing and burning sprees by junta troops across Sagaing as they struggle to crush opposition to the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year.

The junta has previously accused "terrorist" PDF groups of setting the fires.

The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the putsch, with almost 700,000 people displaced by violence according to the UN and the economy in tatters.

Over 2,100 people have been killed in the junta's crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.

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