Four local resistance forces based in Myanmar’s delta claimed that their members attacked a military convoy accompanying two junta ministers in Ayeyarwady Region, killing at least 10 soldiers.
The assault, which was carried out using homemade explosives, occurred along the Chaungtha-Pathein road.
Locals said that the military council’s hotels and tourism minister Htay Aung and Tin Maung Win, the Ayeyarwady Region chief minister, were on their way back from Chaungtha and Ngwe Saung beaches after attending “travel season openings” there.
In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the Pathein Western Defence Force, the Beach Defence Force, the Delta Guerrilla Warfare Coalition Force, and the Ayeyarwady Wild Boar said that their members struck the convoy with improvised mines, after which soldiers opened fire on them.
“The convoy got hit by our mines. The soldiers returned fire and we exchanged shots for about five minutes,” a spokesperson for the Beach Defence Force said on Tuesday.
“We retreated after a while because they outnumbered us. We are all now in a safe place,” he told Myanmar Now, adding that the local resistance forces planned to collaboratively carry out more attacks against the junta.
Neither Htay Aung nor Tin Maung Win was injured in the attack, which marked one of the first of its kind directly targeting the military council’s ministers since armed resistance to the coup regime began in May across the country.
State-run newspapers reported on Tuesday that the ministers had attended the high season launch events at the Azura Hotel—owned by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s son—in Chaungtha and Yamonna Oo Resort in Ngwe Saung but did not mention the attack.
The ambush occurred near the village of Chauk Kaung, around 45km from regional capital Pathein, and the military had since tightened security in the area, a resident near the village told Myanmar Now on Tuesday.
Junta forces carried out a search near the area where the attack had happened, including questioning area residents and travellers using the road, according to the local.
“Two families who live nearby were taken for interrogation this morning but [the soldiers] said they were not arresting them,” the Chauk Kaung resident said.
The detained families were released on Tuesday, Myanmar Now has learned.
According to the resistance forces, at least 10 soldiers were fatally injured in the attack but Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the claim.
A resident from another village around 30km away from Pathein—Shaw Pyar—said three more improvised explosives were found on the road on Monday afternoon and that soldiers had spent the night combing through the area.
“They broke into empty huts and closed fuel shops on the road and cleared the area. I heard some people were even detained on suspicion of involvement in the attack,” the Shaw Pyar resident said, adding that for the rest of the day on Monday, the troops “pointed guns at every motorcycle and car passing down the road” in order to carry out inspections.
He added that the situation appeared to have normalised on Tuesday.