A resistance group based in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township claims that it killed a total of 61 regime soldiers in two clashes on Sunday.
In a statement released later the same day, the People’s Revolution Army (PRA) said that the casualties were the result of a landmine attack and two shootouts.
The fighting—which the group said had continued through the day—broke out on the Pale-Khin Aye road near the border between Sagaing and Magway regions early Sunday morning.
“We used landmines, which led to a shootout. The place is quite far from any villages. We chose it because they usually terrorize villages near places where they have been attacked,” Japan Gyi, a spokesperson for the PRA, told Myanmar Now.
The group also claimed that only one of its members had been injured as of late Sunday.
The first clash started at around 7am near the Naga Ma hills, some 3km west of the village of Wan Be Chaing in Pale, and resulted in the death of 33 junta troops, according to the PRA.
At around 11am, fighting broke out in the Nat Htaik (Pone Taung) hills, about 18km from the site of the first clash. Another 28 soldiers were killed in that fight, the group said.
Myanmar Now has been unable to confirm the casualty figures provided by the PRA. The military, which has suffered major losses in the region, has not disclosed any information about its recent offensives there.
The military column that came under attack was said to consist of around 300 troops who were being sent to the Yaw region in northern Magway as reinforcements.
The area, which is seen as key to the junta’s efforts to crush resistance to its rule in Myanmar’s remote, mountainous north, has come under intense pressure from the military in the past month.
According to a member of the Myaing People’s Defence Force, targeting army troops entering Magway Region is now a priority of resistance groups operating in the area.
“We have made preparations to prevent them from entering our territory,” he said, adding that the column attacked on Sunday reportedly had three armoured trucks.
Meanwhile, around 1,800 civilians from the villages of Wan Be Chaing and Wun Pyin have been displaced by the latest clashes, according to local sources.
“The shooting has stopped, but I hear they have started firing on the village,” a resident of Wun Pyin told Myanmar Now on Monday.
“We can’t confirm anything as we are all on the run,” he added.
