Resistance fighters whose base in the Magway Region town of Kyaukhtu was torched over the weekend say they retaliated on Monday by attacking the junta troops responsible.
Bo Kyay, a battalion commander of the group Youth Force (Saw and Kyaukhtu), said his troops and members of the Kyaukhtu People’s Defence Force (PDF) used artillery to target a column of around 90 soldiers after they attacked their base on Sunday.
The soldiers, from Light Infantry Division 77, were temporarily stationed about 5km from the destroyed Youth Force base when they came under attack, he said.
“We tracked them down and fired at them when they stopped near a local village. They still haven’t entered any village. They’re staying in the woods,” he told Myanmar Now.
According to Bo Kyay, the two groups also fired on the regime forces when they were destroying their base.
He said that the junta troops torched a barracks and a supply garage and stole five motorcycles and some household appliances from the base. A number of nearby farms huts were also burned down, he added.
He said that the attack on the base had been anticipated because members of his group had noticed drones in the area for several days.
“We knew they were coming, so we warned our troops. They all got out safely, thanks to that,” said Bo Kyay.
Clashes were also reported in the area last Friday, when junta soldiers who had been launching assaults between Kyaukhtu and Mindat in neighbouring Chin State came under attack from a combined force of troops from the Kyaukhtu PDF and the Mindat branch of the Chinland Defence Force.
It was unclear if there were any casualties from the recent fighting.
