Resistance fighters in Sagaing Region’s Myaung Township have said they killed 12 junta soldiers and captured three police officers on Wednesday, while 10 more troops were killed the next day as they travelled to Myaung as reinforcements.
The fighting started in Myit Son village at around 10am, when members of the local chapter of the People’s Defence Force (PDF), which calls itself the Civilian Defence and Security Organisation of Myaung, came under heavy artillery fire.
The PDF fighters fled the village along with its residents and junta soldiers took over. The fighters then launched attacks on the occupying soldiers throughout the afternoon, killing nine, according to a statement by the Myaung PDF.
Later that day, PDF fighters raided a police station in the nearby village of Kyauk Yit. Several officers fled with their weapons but three, including the station chief, surrendered and are now being detained in a safe place, a PDF member told Myanmar Now.
After the raid, three military trucks full of soldiers arrived at the police station and there was a shootout. PDF fighters killed three soldiers before retreating, the statement said, adding that junta soldiers then occupied the police station.
The resistance fighters went on to attack another police station in the village of Na Bet, around 11km north of Kyauk Yit, the statement said.
On Thursday morning, the military sent reinforcements from Yesagyo in neighbouring Magway Region but PDF members from Myingyan Township attacked their trucks before they could reach Myaung, said the Myaung PDF member. He estimated that at least 10 junta soldiers were killed in the ambush.
Myaung, Yesagyo and Myingyan townships all sit at the confluence of the Ayeyarwaddy and Chindwin rivers. The military has been carrying out “clearance operations” to quell armed resistance in the area since last month, forcing many residents to flee their homes.
