The Myanmar military used three fighter jets to attack a base of the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF) in Mandalay Region’s Mogok Township last week, killing a column commander in the resistance unit and forcing the group to abandon the site.
On the afternoon of January 20, military aircraft dropped some 30 bombs around the post—located around 13 miles southeast of Mogok town—while troops on board fired machine guns at the area. An army column of 200 soldiers then launched a ground attack, firing mortars at the base, according to Min Khant Kyaw, the information officer for the PDF battalion that was targeted.
“They used excessive force and we had to abandon the base due to the great difference in firepower. Maybe we were unprepared, as well,” the 25-year-old spokesperson told Myanmar Now.
The base in question was home to Battalion 1222 of the PDF, operating under the publicly mandated National Unity Government in Mogok and Thabeikkyin townships, as well as fighting against the junta in northern Shan State, which is adjacent to the region.
According to the PDF’s structure, each base typically has a column commander who operates under battalion and vice battalion commanders. In the January 20 attack on the Mogok base, a column commander for Battalion 1222 was killed, according to the PDF. His identity was not confirmed at the time of reporting, but he was known by the alias “PUBG.”
Three other members of the resistance force were also seriously injured, carried to safety by other PDF troops as they fled, according to spokesperson Min Khant Kyaw. He added that while they were able to bring their weapons, they were forced to abandon their battalion’s food supplies and electricity generators to the advancing junta forces.
They later launched a counterattack against the Myanmar army ground troops with explosive devices set up around the base, he said.
Battalion 1222 originally formed as the Thabeikkyin PDF in May 2021, more than three months after Myanmar’s military coup, and was later restructured into the NUG’s PDF. Also operating in the area is a second resistance unit, Battalion 1221.
