A soldier who defected to the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) was shot dead by the junta’s forces during a clash on Tuesday night in Tamu, Sagaing Region, local resistance fighters told Myanmar Now.
The soldier was on patrol with the Tamu Security Group when they met with Myanmar military troops near the town’s Kuntaung Bridge.
He was 30 years old and known as Aung Aung, one of the resistance fighters said, adding that it was unclear if that was his full name. It was also unclear what his rank was before he defected. He was shot in the chest.
The security group was formed by local residents in March to defend against attacks on unarmed civilians by the new military regime.
Tuesday’s clash started at around 7:30pm. About half an hour later, more regime troops who were stationed at a construction site in the town came to the bridge as reinforcements.
A breakaway group of resistance fighters used grenades to attack the remaining soldiers at the construction site in an effort to distract the troops shooting near the bridge.
Out of five soldiers left at the site, three were killed and two were injured critically in the grenade attack, another member of the Tamu Security Group said. “The military were there with force and [we] wanted to split them up.”
There have been numerous clashes in recent weeks between the junta’s forces and local residents, who are often armed with rudimentary hunting rifles. In early April, Myanmar military soldiers raided protest camps and stationed themselves in hospitals, schools and police stations in the town.
Five of the junta’s policemen were killed when a resistance group led by a policeman who had joined CDM attacked the Nan Phar Lone Police Base with three hand grenades on April 1.
Many of Tamu’s residents have fled their homes.
