The Chinland Defence Force (CDF) carried out simultaneous attacks on three temporary Myanmar army bases in Chin State’s Kanpetlet Town in the early morning hours on Monday, the group reported.
The targeted sites were the junta’s township education and administrative offices and the outpost at the Yan Aung pagoda in the town of Kanpetlet.
Subsequent fighting lasted for 90 minutes, and left at least three of the military’s soldiers dead, according to a spokesperson from the CDF-Kanpetlet, who added that the resistance force was able to retreat successfully by around 8am despite multiple members sustaining injuries.
“We haven’t launched any offensives for a long time now. We decided to go shoot them up as we saw them trespass into our territory,” the spokesperson said.
Several houses in Kanpetlet were reportedly destroyed by the military’s firing of at least 30 artillery shells during the clash.
One of the shells hit a house in Ward 1 in eastern Kanpetlet, killing one man and injuring another, according to the CDF.
Further details about the number of civilians injured and killed were not known at the time of reporting.
“Some of our troops went back to the town to check [on the people], but had to turn back as there were a lot of junta soldiers there,” the CDF-Kanpetlet spokesperson said.
Around 300 troops, including those from battalions under the Light Infantry Division 99, were occupying the police station, school, administrative and education offices, and the Yan Aung pagoda.
The spokesperson also said that around 300 soldiers from the battalions under LID 99 as well as other battalions were stationed at the police station, the school, the township administration office, the township education office and Yan Aung pagoda in Kanpetlet township.
On January 23, a battle broke out between the junta’s forces and the Kanpetlet chapter of the CDF near the town of Kyin Dway, ending a period of more than one month without fighting in the township.
Salai Sithu Aung, a 16-year-old member of the CDF-Kanpetlet, was killed by military artillery fire during the clash.
An alliance of local defence forces in Saw and Kyaukhtu townships in Magway Region, as well as the Yaw Defence Force, has been intercepting junta reinforcement columns travelling between Magway and Chin State.
The Chinland Joint Defense Committee, a coalition of Chin defence forces, released a statement on January 26 claiming that they had killed more than 1,000 Myanmar army soldiers in battles in the southern Chin State townships of Mindat, Matupi and Kanpetlet between April and December 2021.
