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Clash in northern Mandalay Region leaves three junta soldiers dead

Three soldiers from an army column of around 50 were killed in fighting that broke out in Mandalay Region’s Thabeikkyin Township on Monday, according to resistance sources.

The clash took place between the villages of Ngar Tant Aing and Kyaw Lay and was initiated by an anti-junta People’s Defence Team based in Pyin Oo Lwin called the Bo Lin Yone Group.

In addition to the three soldiers who were killed, another five were injured, a spokesperson for the group told Myanmar Now.

“We ambushed them on the hill between the two villages,” he said, adding that the group’s members were forced to retreat when another junta column of around 50 troops arrived to provide reinforcement.

After the clash, one of the army columns went on to torch houses in the nearby village of Chaung Thale, while the other did the same in Kyaw Lay, he added.

The second column was hit by a series of five explosions that injured three soldiers, but then moved on to another village in the area called Taung Khar Pyat, where it continued its arson attacks.

According to the Bo Lin Yone Group spokesperson, the exact number of houses that were destroyed was still not known, as residents who fled have yet to return.

The two columns have been carrying out raids in Thabeikkyin Township, which is about 150km north of Mandalay on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River, since last Friday.

In late April, junta troops crossed the river from Thabeikkyin to seize control of Pa Zi Gyi, the village in Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township that was hit by a deadly airstrike on April 11.

Around 170 people, including dozens of children, were killed in that attack, which marked a major escalation of the regime’s targeting of civilians.

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