Anti-junta guerrilla groups ambushed a camp of the Pyu Saw Htee militia along the western banks of the Mu River in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township on Wednesday morning, reportedly killing seven members of the military-backed armed group.
Some 30 Myanmar army soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee troops were present at the base, located in Kadoe Seik village, when a coalition of People’s Defence Teams attacked at 4am.
A leader of one of the groups involved said that they withdrew after one hour of fighting, fearing that the regime would launch an aerial assault around the site in retaliation.
“We were worried about airstrikes, so we had to withdraw and abandon the base without being able to seize control of it,” he explained, adding that two resistance fighters were injured.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the number of people wounded or killed in the clash.
While the military council has not released a statement on the incident, pro-junta Telegram channels reported that in previous assaults on the Kadoe Seik base—which they described as the village’s security office—the “attackers” wielded light weapons and handmade muskets.
Villages along the Mu River in western Shwebo Township are frequent targets of military raids, with junta forces from Kadoe Seik said to have perpetrated the attacks.
In an April 2022 press conference, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun officially introduced the partnership with militias to fight the anti-coup resistance, saying that the military would “provide for” these groups. A secret March 25 directive from the planning and finance ministry that same year also revealed that the regime was planning to incorporate the fire department and Myanmar Red Cross into its military operations, and that coup leader Min Aung Hlaing had given an order to form “people’s security forces.”
The junta’s Sagaing Region chief minister Myat Kyaw stated during a Naypyitaw meeting that same month that the military already had armed 77 such militias with more than 2,000 weapons, according to records from the closed-door talks.
Pyu Saw Htee groups are typically led by retired army officers, ultranationalists and members of the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party.
A Pyu Saw Htee chapter in Sagaing’s Kanbalu Township is headed by notorious ultranationalist monk, Ven Warthawa, of Mhaw Taw village, who has declared that he would “eradicate from the map” all villages supporting the resistance movement.
