Resistance forces in two Sagaing Region townships say they have engaged in heavy fighting with junta troops since they were placed under martial law on Wednesday.
Anti-junta groups in Ayadaw Township said that regime forces have launched a series of ground and air assaults there since the new measures were put in place.
A clash that began early Wednesday morning near Min, a village about 15km south of the town of Ayadaw, escalated later in the day to airstrikes, according to an officer of a local resistance group. Multiple casualties were reported on both sides.
Aerial attacks were also carried out on villages farther to the south and continued late into the next day, he added.
“They’re attacking Ma Lel Tha and Nyaungbin from the air at the moment, using three military jets. They haven’t stopped shooting yet,” he said, speaking to Myanmar Now at around 2pm on Thursday.
Min and Ma Lel Tha were both previously targeted last year, resulting in the loss of hundreds of homes to arson attacks, according to local sources.
Hundreds of people from villages in the area have been displaced by the latest attacks, the sources added.
Ayadaw’s administrative centre is located just 35km northeast of Monywa, where the military’s Northwestern Regional Command is based. Resistance forces claim to have control over 128 of the township’s 155 villages.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Shwebo Township, local defence teams said on Wednesday that they intercepted a junta column that has been raiding villages along the eastern bank of the Muu River since February 12.
The column of around 80 soldiers was travelling from the village of Htoo Gyi to Pauk Chaing, another village about 5km away, when a combined force of around 400 resistance fighters from groups based in Shwebo, Wetlet and Depayin townships attacked it several times.
A member of the Pauk Chaing village defence team said that there were numerous junta casualties, including some who were killed by explosives planted in and near the village.
“We set up explosive traps at the entrance and around and inside the village. We used multiple types of explosive devices. They stepped right into a minefield,” he said.
The anti-regime groups continued to attack the junta forces for around 40 minutes, surrounding the village and firing on it with improvised weapons, he added.
“We don’t know exactly how many of them were killed, but I can say for sure that they suffered a large number of casualties, as we fired at them with handmade grenades and RPG missiles,” he said.
He said that they ultimately had to retreat after regime reinforcements arrived from Si Gyi Taw, a village in Depayin Township.
On Wednesday, Myanmar’s junta announced that Shwebo, Ayadaw, and Wetlet townships had been added to the list of townships in Sagaing Region that had been placed under martial law, bringing the total to 14.
