Junta-trained militia members killed in resistance assault in Magway Region

A resistance assault on a Pyu Saw Htee militia-controlled village in Magway Region’s Natmauk Township killed five on Thursday, according to fighters who participated in the operation. The militia members killed in the attack, which occurred around 5am that morning, included a leader and four of his subordinates. The village of Tet Wun where the assault occurred is around 12 miles west of the town of Natmauk and a known stronghold of the Pyu Saw Htee, the civilian militias armed and trained by the Myanmar military. “We surrounded his house, threw grenades, and started shooting. They fired back at us from inside too,” a resistance fighter said. “They couldn’t hold out for long. The exchange of fire didn’t last much longer than five minutes. There were only five of them, but we seized seven rifles.” Weapons captured from the junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militia in Natmauk Township, Magway Region (Photo: Supplied) The slain militia leader Wai Tun, who was in his 40s, was a former administrator who joined the Pyu Saw Htee after Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. Resistance members said they took measures to avoid harm to his wife and daughter, who fled during the shootout. According to township residents, fellow Pyu Saw Htee members based in Pi Tauk Ngoke village some three miles to the southeast cremated the bodies of Wai Tun and his subordinates the same day. The resistance assault was a coordinated, joint operation carried out by the No. 3 Magway District People’s Defence Force Battalion, the township-level People’s Defence Organisation, and other local resistance fighters affiliated with other groups in Natmauk Township. A column of around 100 junta troops has been advancing through villages east of their base in Natmauk and taking civilians captive, reportedly to use them as guides and human shields. “So far, junta troops have burned a hut suspected of being used by resistance forces in Tha Hmone Kone Gyi village,” a resistance fighter said, referring to a village some eight miles east of Natmauk. “They have been stationed in Tha Hmone Kone Gyi for about four days.” Last month, a junta warplane carried out an airstrike in Natmauk Township although there was no fighting in the area at the time. The attack killed two children and three other civilians as well as injuring nine people in Le Bu village some 12 miles east of Natmauk, according to locals. At least three PDF battalions and other local resistance groups remain active in Natmauk Township’s rural villages, with junta forces stationed in the urban areas of Natmauk and two other villages in the township. An ordnance depot used and guarded by the military is also located around 12 miles north of Natmauk. Natmauk may be best known as the birthplace of General Aung San, a leader of the fight for independence from British colonial rule of Myanmar and the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader and figurehead of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement whom the military ousted in 2021.

Junta-trained militia members killed in resistance assault in Magway Region

Following raids and airstrikes by the military outside Natmauk Township, an alliance of local resistance forces carried out a coordinated attack on village held by a pro-regime militia

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