A van carrying junta police under attack on Sunday from resistance fighters in Taze Township, Sagaing Region. / TPC
Almost 100 Myanmar junta soldiers were reportedly killed over the weekend in Sagaing and Magwe regions, as People’s Defense Forces (PDF) launched a series of daring attacks on military regime units.
On Sunday, resistance fighters of Taze People Comrades (TPC) attacked a vehicle carrying regime police in Sagaing Region’s Taze Town. Seven junta police officers were killed and six weapons seized, according to the group.
TPC fighters used two vehicles to ambush the police van as it headed to a military checkpoint at the entrance to Taze Town. A TPC video shows the van being attacked at close range.
On early Saturday morning, 34 regime troops and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia were reportedly killed when a combined force of nine PDFs raided a Pyu Saw Htee base in Twinma Village in Myaing Township, Magwe Region, said Myaing-PDF, which coordinated the raid.
The combined PDFs also ambushed junta reinforcements traveling on seven motorbikes with landmines. Four junta troops were killed and another 27 wounded in the ambush.
Three resistance fighters were killed and five injured in the raid, added Myaing-PDF.
However, Myaing-PDF was forced to abandon an attempt to seize the militia camp as regime helicopters and more junta reinforcements arrived in the area.
Also on Saturday, Myaung Revolution Army (MRA) claimed that a combined force of PDFs killed at least 22 Myanmar military soldiers when they used landmines to ambush regime forces in Sagaing Region’s Chaung-U Township.
The PDFs ambushed 40 junta soldiers traveling on foot and a military vehicle carrying a jammer designed to prevent PDFs from activating landmines while they were travelling on the Chaung-U- Myinmu road, said MRA.
Some 12 regime forces were killed, said MRA.
On the same morning, the combined PDFs also attacked a military detachment as they attempted to defuse mines planted on the same highway. 10 more soldiers were killed and many others were wounded, claimed MRA.
That afternoon, MRA also ambushed a military convoy of 10 vehicles with landmines while it was traveling on the Mandalay-Monywa road. However, military casualties are unknown, said the PDF.
At least 20 regime soldiers were killed by a combined force of PDFs during three days of firefights in Sagaing’s Ayadaw Township.
The attacks started last Thursday, when a combined force of 11 PDFs clashed with a detachment of 64 junta troops while they were trying to raid Minywar Village in Ayadaw Township.
15 regime soldiers were killed and six resistance fighters suffered injuries, said Burmese Revolutionary Technical Front (BRTF), the PDF that coordinated the attack. Regime forces responded to the attack by employing helicopters and heavy explosives against the resistance fighters.
On Friday, the PDF used drones to bomb junta troops in Minywar Village, killing five junta soldiers, according to BRTF.
The following day, Saturday, regime forces retreated from the village after another raid by the PDFs. One resistance fighter was killed, said BTRF.
Junta forces torched some 350 houses in the village during their deployment, added BRTF.
In Sagaing’s Budalin Township, five regime soldiers were reportedly killed on Sunday in a PDF ambush.
Amid daily attacks from PDFs and ethnic armed organizations nationwide, regime forces continue to commit atrocities including the arbitrary killings of civilians, using civilians as human shields, burning people alive, air and artillery strikes on residential areas, looting and burning houses and committing acts of sexual violence.