Resistance fighters based some 70 miles southwest of Mandalay claimed they had forced civilian militias trained and armed by the junta out of local villages without a fight this week.
A Monday raid on the village of Sin Hpyu, Taungtha Township—located south of the Ayeyarwady River and 15 miles west of Taungtha, Mandalay Region on the Nyaung-U‒Myingyan road—targeted the home of militia commander Win Ko, according to local resistance sources.
The Pyu Saw Htee militias, made up of civilians or retired military personnel recruited from local populations, are armed and trained by the military as auxiliary forces to fight against the armed resistance in Myanmar’s heartland.
“There was no combat. The Pyu Saw Htee members fled when they heard our guns and abandoned their weapons,” said an officer of the Taungtha Township People’s Defence Team (PDT), a local resistance group.
“Their. . .
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