War Against the Junta
At least 29 Myanmar junta forces were killed in the last three days as People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) and ethnic Karen revolutionary groups stepped up attacks on regime targets across the country.
Incidents were reported in Sagaing, Mandalay and Magwe regions and Mon State.
The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks from the PDFs and the ethnic group.
Some military casualties could not be independently verified.
Junta township administration bombed by resistance drones in Mon
An engineer and an administration staffer were killed and at least 20 other junta forces and personnel were injured in Belin Township, Mon State on Thursday when the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), and PDF groups used drones to drop 10 bombs on a group of members of the junta-formed Belin Township Administration Council, according to the KNU and regime township officials.
The group, escorted by regime forces, was bombed while checking a key junta supply bridge that was destroyed by the KNU and PDF on Wednesday night.
The bridge is located on the Yangon-Mawlamyine highway.
Military transport ship sunk in resistance ambush in Sagaing
Resistance forces take part in an ambush of three military transport ships in Chaung-U Township on Wednesday. / Monywa District PDF battalion 12
At least five regime soldiers were killed and a military vessel was sunk in Chaung-U Township, Sagaing Region on Wednesday when local resistance groups ambushed three military vessels transporting rations and ammunition to pro-junta Kan Gyi Kone Village, which is home to regime-allied Pyu Saw Htee militia forces, claimed Monywa District PDF Battalion 12, which coordinated the attack.
The vessels were ambushed in the Chindwin River while traveling to the pro-junta village from the Northwest Military Command in Monywa town.
One of the vessels sank near the Sin Pyu Shin Bridge, the PDF groups claimed.
Regime targets bombed in Sagaing
Eagle Guerilla Forces, which forms Shwebo District PDF Battalion 15, said at least five regime forces were killed and others injured in Wetlet town, Sagaing Region on Thursday as it and four resistance groups used drones to drop 22 bombs on a police station, the township General Administration Department and the house of a pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia member.
During the drone strike, regime forces responded by indiscriminately firing nine 90-mm artillery rounds. Afterwards, junta fighter jets attacked nearby areas and villages outside the town.
At least 12 more regime forces and pro-junta militia members were killed when the aircraft wrongly attacked a Fire Service Station where regime forces are housed, the resistance group said, citing military informants.
Clashes erupt in Mandalay
Local resistance forces take part in recent anti-regime operations in Thabeikkyin Township. / Bo Lin Yone PDF
Many regime forces are believed to have been killed or injured in Thabeikkyin Township, Mandalay Region on Tuesday as three local PDF groups operating near a pro-junta village clashed with a military detachment heading to the village, said Bo Lin Yone, a local defense group that coordinated the attack.
Both sides used many heavy explosives. The resistance group used several mine clusters to attack the regime forces in the pro-junta village after conducting drone surveillance.
After the incidents, resistance scouts witnessed around 30 injured junta troops being transported in a vehicle, the PDF group said.
On the same day, four soldiers were killed in the township when the combined groups used heavy explosives and sniper rifles to ambush a military checkpoint where regime forces have been extorting money from boats on the Irrawaddy River.
The PDF groups also shelled regime forces stationed on a mountainside area in Thabeikkyin town.
Regime forces ambushed in Magwe
Combined resistance forces clash with regime forces in Pauk Township on Wednesday. / YRF
Local PDF group Young Revolution Front said it and three PDF groups clashed with 15 regime forces and Pyu Saw Htee militia members traveling near Thapyay Aye Village in Pauk Township, Magwe Region on Wednesday.
In the clash, a pro-regime militia member was killed. Regime forces retrieved four injured soldiers but left the dead militia member’s body behind.