Allied anti-junta defence teams suffered two casualties in an attack on military bunkers on the outskirts of the Sagaing Region city of Shwebo on Monday. Six Myanmar army troops were also reportedly killed.
From two cars, resistance force members shot at the site, located in front of the entrance to Shwebo University and along the road to Kyauk Myaung, according to a statement released by Burma Ranger, one of the local groups involved in the ambush.
The slain guerrilla fighters were identified as 22-year-old Hein Soe of Burma Ranger and 20-year-old Wathan of the People’s Revolutionary Front, who was also a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.
Defence team members in the first car fired at the first two of three bunkers, and soldiers stationed there shot back at the second car using machine guns. Those in the vehicle had been instructed to target the third bunker, but were unable to hit the site due to the counterattack.
Myanmar Now is unable to independently verify the resistance alliance’s account of the clash.
“Our troops in the first car fired at two of the bunkers and we were around 250 meters away from the third bunker,” a member of the Burma Ranger group explained. “We were supposed to attack the last bunker after our first vehicle left.”
He noted that five of the Myanmar army soldiers who were killed had been in the first and second bunkers, and one had been outside at the university entrance.
Hein Soe and Wathan had briefly exited the vehicles to return fire at the troops in an attempt to clear an escape route, the Burma Ranger member said, adding that they were back in the cars and on their way out of the area when they were killed.
“We fought back and we were happy when our cars got out successfully, but the two of them were shot right when we lifted our heads to check, and they died in my arms.”
