Regime soldiers captured along with ammunition during a firefight with the Karenni resistance in Nyaung Shwe township, Shan State, on May 12. / KNDF-B03
More than 2,000 regime soldiers were killed and almost 540 wounded during fighting with the ethnic armed forces and people’s defense forces (PDFs) within a month, according to the parallel National Unity Government (NUG).
The NUG’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration said from May 7 to June 6 there were 593 clashes and 107 bomb and mine attacks, claiming that 2,063 junta soldiers were killed and 539 wounded.
The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the figures.
Karen State reported the highest number of shootouts with 211, followed by Sagaing Region with 175 and 10 mine attacks.
The figures were probably an underestimate, the ministry stated.
Fighting between junta forces and PDFs has increased since the NUG declared war on the junta on September 7 last year.
“The people of Myanmar had to wage a war in self-defense,” the ministry reported. “The NUG has encouraging defections and the number of soldiers and police defecting are also increasing.”
According to the NUG, more than 8,000 soldiers and police officers have defected since the coup.
Meanwhile, the regime has escalated atrocities in resistance strongholds. Last month, the junta committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sagaing by conducting arbitrary arrests and killing civilians, extrajudicial execution, shelling residential areas, using civilians as human shields and looting and burning houses nearly every day.
The junta has also cut off internet and mobile phone connectivity in the areas.
Data for Myanmar, an independent group monitoring junta atrocities, estimated that 18,886 houses and buildings had been burned down by regime forces by the end of May. Sagaing has suffered the most, losing an estimated 13,840 houses.
Since the coup, at least 1,906 people have been killed by junta forces, while more than 14,000 people, including government leaders, have been detained, according to the rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
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