Anti-junta resistance fighters fired heavy and light weaponry at the central police station in the town of Muse, on northern Shan State’s border with China, on Sunday evening, leading to a shootout with the troops inside.
After a 30-minute exchange of gunfire, the local guerrilla group Tactic of Muse—which was involved in the attack—retreated without suffering casualties or injuries to its members, according to the group’s information officer.
“Both sides fired heavy artillery and small arms at each other,” he said.
Myanmar Now was unable to confirm the extent of the damage to the site, located in Ho Mun ward, or whether any police officers were killed.
Pro-junta propaganda news sites reported that the police station was attacked by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed organisation active in the region, as well as the Kachin People’s Defence Force (KPDF), which is under the command of the publicly mandated National Unity Government.
Myanmar Now has been unable to obtain comment from the KIA or the KPDF to confirm whether they were involved in the strike.
On the condition of anonymity, a Muse local who heard the fighting said that some homes in the surrounding area were damaged in the clash that followed.
“I heard artillery fire twice, followed by the sound of gunshots. There was a shootout,” he said. “We didn’t dare go out. We shut the doors and hid inside.”
Myanmar army soldiers and members of junta-allied militias were seen patrolling the streets and residential wards of Muse on Monday, the local man added.
Attacks targeting junta sites and affiliated businesses have occurred repeatedly in Muse since the coup, but often no groups claim responsibility for the incidents.
A township-level judge in the military council’s court system was shot and killed by unknown assailants in the town last October, and one month earlier, four gunmen shot up a local branch of KBZ Bank after the institution was accused of sharing account holders’ personal information with the junta.
A military raid on a Chinese-owned casino in July 2022 triggered a series of attacks against junta-linked targets in Muse, including an explosion at a traffic intersection near Muse’s central market in which one woman was killed and five men injured: two traffic police and three members of a military-backed militia.
