Myanmar junta attacking villages captured by resistance north of Mandalay

The Myanmar army has launched fierce counterattacks on three villages north of Mandalay that the Mandalay People’s Defence Forces (MDY-PDF) captured on Monday of this week, local sources said. The MDY-PDF overran army camps in Patheingyi Township’s Mya Kan Thar and Thayetkaing villages and Madaya Township’s Htan Pin Kone village, seizing a large stockpile of the junta troops’ weapons, according to the resistance fighters. Since losing the camps, the military has shelled and carried out aerial attacks on the villages, civilian residents of Patheingyi Township told Myanmar Now. “Junta troops stationed on Mandalay Hill have been firing on Mya Kan Thar with their artillery. They’ve fired off around 50 rounds so far,” a woman living in the township said. “We also saw reinforcement troops coming into the area.” The artillery barrage started on Wednesday morning and lasted till around 2pm. Locals in downtown Mandalay, some three miles south of Mandalay Hill and 13 miles south of Mya Kan Thar, posted about the noise on social media. The military has been reinforcing its positions and heightening security in villages across Patheingyi Township since losing its base camps, according to resistance scouts. “They’ve been building fortified bunkers and conducting nightly patrols in villages along the stream and near the towns to prevent further territorial losses in Patheingyi Township,” a fighter deployed in the area said. Junta aircraft bombed Mya Han Thar more than 30 times the day after the junta base camps fell into resistance hands, while junta forces simultaneously shelled the area from four miles to the southwest in Madaya Township’s Htee Taw Moe village, he added. The junta airstrikes continued into the following morning. “They launched airstrikes on civilian areas, not just battle zones. But so far, I haven’t heard about any casualties or injuries,” the resistance fighter said. Mya Kan Thar, Thayetkaing, and Htan Pin Kone all remained under MDY-PDF control as of Tuesday evening despite the constant junta attacks, according to MDY-PDF spokesperson Osman. In the MDY-PDF’s initial statement on the capture of junta camps and arms on Monday, the resistance group also claimed to have captured 16 prisoners of war and recovered 15 bodies. The military council did not respond to queries about having lost weapons or personnel to the resistance. Junta forces still control the west side of Madaya Township as well as Madaya’s urban areas, while the resistance controls the remainder of the township, including most of its rural villages. Madaya Township is strategically important due to its location, serving as a gateway into Mandalay from the north. It has also served as a base from which the junta can launch counteroffensives to retake Singu Township and other areas north of Mandalay held by the MDY-PDF or other resistance groups. Clashes between the MDY-PDF and regime forces for control of Madaya Township have been breaking out since mid-2023. During these battles, the resistance forces have seized some 33 junta bases in Madaya Township, as well as a base at the Alpha Cement factory near the village of Aungthapye, five bases outside the township, and a gold mine owned by the junta-appointed chief minister of Mandalay Region, Maung Ko. The Military council and the MDY-PDF have been locked in clashes in Madaya Township—about 20 miles from Mandalay, a key economic center in central Myanmar—since June 25, 2023.The MDY-PDF has seized 33 junta camps in Madaya Township, as well as five others—including a security outpost at Alpha Cement Factory in Patheingyi Township and the gold mine owned by Maung Ko, the junta-appointed former Chief Minister of Mandalay Region.

Myanmar junta attacking villages captured by resistance north of Mandalay

The Mandalay People’s Defence Forces (MDY-PDF) had previously overrun junta camps in the villages of Mya Kan Thar and Thayetkaing villages, Patheingyi Township and nearby Htan Pin Kone village, Madaya Township, seizing a large cache of junta weapons

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