Anti-junta guerrilla forces opened fire on police in Magway and Sagaing regions this week, killing at least six officers in two separate ambushes, representatives of the groups said.
The attacks were carried out by different defence forces in the neighbouring townships of Kamma in Magway and Salingyi in Sagaing. Located west of the Ayeyarwady River, both are considered to be strongholds of the armed resistance movement.
An official from the People’s Defence Force (PDF) chapter in Pakokku town said that they carried out a drive-by shooting 18 miles away at a Kamma Township police outpost on Wednesday morning.
Two police officers were killed and three were injured, according to Pakokku PDF representative Thein Kha, who participated in the attack.
“There were four officers in the outpost and three were on the street. They didn’t have time to return fire,” Thein Kha told Myanmar Now. “We stopped the car, opened fire, and drove away. They only returned fire from behind.”
He alleged that the officers had used the checkpoint, located some 60 feet outside of a police station, to stop passing vehicles and extort money from travellers.
“They were inspecting cars just before we attacked, but there were no cars there when we opened fire. We were able to complete the mission successfully,” Thein Kha said.
The three injured junta officers were reportedly taken to a local hospital by ambulance; it was not known at the time of reporting if they had survived.
A bullet grazed the head of one PDF member, but his condition was “not critical,” Thein Kha said.
Two days earlier, in southern Sagaing’s Salingyi Township, members of a local resistance coalition ambushed a group of five junta police officers in a vehicle after they left a bar.
An officer from one of the five participating groups, Triple Two Task Force, told Myanmar Now that one policeman escaped and four were killed in the brief exchange of gunfire.
“They died sitting in the car, because they were shot suddenly,” he explained. “I know that because I got into the car to pick up the guns,” he added, noting that he seized three weapons.
A civilian—a woman—was also said to have been killed in the incident, but further information was not available at the time of reporting.
“I am not sure how a civilian was hit. It was a shootout, and we fired without aiming when the officer ran away,” the Triple Two Task Force member said. “I don’t know if the civilian was hit by our bullets or theirs. We can’t say for sure if it was our bullet, but we also can’t say that it wasn’t.”
He added that the resistance groups do not target civilians in such attacks and aim to “complete [their] missions as cleanly as possible.”
Among the other forces involved in the assault were the Yinmabin and Salingyi PDFs, the Chindwin Galone Yarzar guerrilla group, and the Alpha Special Force.
