Myanmar military airstrikes forced the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF) to abandon a seized junta hilltop base in Mawlaik Township, Sagaing Region, on Sunday, 10 days after the resistance group overran the site.
On June 30, Battalion 2 of the Mawlaik District PDF took control of the camp in Taung In village, located on the eastern banks of the Chindwin River, and reportedly confiscated several weapons. Some 100 junta troops had been stationed there, 10 of whom were killed including a captain, according to a statement by the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG), under which the PDF fights.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the casualties.
In the early days of July, the regime sent an Mi35 fighter jet to open fire on the base in an attempt to drive out the resistance force. It returned to attack twice on Sunday, according to an officer in the Mawlaik PDF.
“We didn’t give up the base the first time, because they withdrew after the first airstrike, but they came back again and we abandoned the base after the third time,” he said on Monday.
A ground column of 200 junta soldiers sent from Paungbyin, Homalin and Kalay townships, as well as from Light Infantry Battalion 309 and the Shanni Nationalities Army, was also deployed at the Taung In monastery, school and police station. They fired heavy artillery at and around the seized base, the PDF officer added.
The Taung In base is a strategic location in the military’s supply line to other posts in neighbouring villages.
Mawlaik has a significant resistance presence, with several anti-junta defence forces active throughout around 70 percent of the township. However, a handful of villages continue to be dominated by military-allied Pyu Saw Htee militias, according to local sources.
