Junta lieutenant colonel among 15 killed in resistance attack on Bago Region base

Resistance fighters assaulted a military base in Bago Region’s Yedashe Township on Monday, resulting in the deaths of 15 junta armed personnel including a battalion commander, according to a resistance statement issued on Tuesday. The fighters, operating with the command structure of the People’s Defence Forces’ (PDF) Military Operations Zone 2, also captured two prisoners in the attack on the outpost, located in Ywar Thit in the Swar Ywar Ma village tract on the east bank of the Sittaung River. An officer of the Naypyitaw PDF Battalion 806 who took part in the attack said it began at around 2pm on Monday and that the junta force manning the base consisted of no more than 60 troops commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Nyi Nyi Naing of Air Defence Unit 2029. The PDF said they were able to capture the village base and guard posts after around two hours of fighting, forcing the remainder of the junta garrison to retreat. Having taken the base, they seized junta weapons and equipment including two MA series rifles, three G-3 rifles, a 60mm mortar, a pistol, a drone jumper, as well as additional ammunition and supplies, the statement said. The Naypyitaw Regional Military Command, a resistance structure operating under the defence ministry of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG), also claimed on Tuesday that the PDF had shot and killed Lt-Col Nyi Nyi Naing, who was armed with a handgun, when he attempted to resist capture. The Naypyitaw PDF Battalion 806 officer said the resistance fighters found seven soldiers’ bodies left behind when they entered the base and cited claims from eyewitnesses that the number of soldiers killed in the clash totalled around 15. He added that names and other details about the deceased personnel other than Lt-Col Nyi Nyi Naing were unconfirmed and currently being investigated. The Ywar Thit outpost was provisioned with ammunition, personnel, and supplies via another base with a garrison of at least 150 troops in the village of Swar Ywar Ma, about half an hour away by motorbike, which in turn has received reinforcements from the town of Yedashe. Both Ywar Thit and Swar Ywar Ma are in territory controlled by the military. A resident of Ywar Thit in her 50s said the battle in the village had induced civilians living in the area to relocate to the nearby towns of Yedashe and Swar, leaving behind only a few who had to tend their farms or lacked the means to travel. “When the battles happened, we were afraid of airstrikes, so people from Khintan, Kyeit Pu Tee, and Ywar Thit all had to flee. We reached the river bridge before it was due to close, but the junta troops still wouldn’t let us cross. We had to stay at friends’ houses and in monasteries in nearby villages,” she said. A resistance fighter operating in the area confirmed that, of the clashes that took place on the Sittaung River’s east bank, the junta forces incurred their greatest losses in the Ywar Thit battle. “The current fighting has already threatened the elections,” he said, referring to a general election the Myanmar military regime plans to hold in phases in December and January. “The main thing is that we will not accept the election, and knowing that they intend to go through with it by all means necessary, our side will also do whatever we can to prevent it.” Military Operations Zone 2, where the assault on the junta base occurred, is a subdivision of the area designated as Military Region 2 by the NUG defence ministry, which includes most of southern Myanmar.

Junta lieutenant colonel among 15 killed in resistance attack on Bago Region base

Resistance forces attacked a regime outpost in a village on the east bank of the Sittaung River in Bago Region, resulting in 15 junta fatalities and the capture of two prisoners, according to a resistance statement

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