Two junta soldiers guarding a China-backed oil and gas pipeline in Magwe Region were killed in a resistance attack on Sunday.
Chinland Defense Force-Asho (CDF-Asho) attacked junta troops guarding an off-take station for Sino-Myanmar pipelines near Myelet village in Ngape Township, Magwe at around 5 am on Sunday, said the resistance group.
Two junta soldiers including a lieutenant were killed in the attack, CDF-Asho spokesman Salai Yoe Chin told The Irrawaddy.
“Our mission was to seize weapons from them. We watched the outpost for a week before conducting the attack. We were able to enter the outpost during the attack. We saw that two soldiers were killed, and we learnt later that they were a lieutenant and a private,” said CDF-Asho spokesman Salai Yoe Chin.
There were only five or six junta soldiers in the outpost at the time of attack, the spokesman added.
CDF-Asho fighters ran out of ammunition after 30 minutes of fighting and were forced to retreat as junta soldiers from nearby hills arrived.
Junta reinforcements from Ngape then beat and arrested ethnic Chin men from Myelet village near the scene of the clash. The village has around 50 households.
A bus driver from Ngape said: “The military carried out checks on cars and motorbikes on Ann-Padan road on Sunday morning following the fighting. They did nothing to motorists. But I heard they beat both young and older Myelet villagers who don’t speak Burmese for allegedly supporting the CDF. I also heard two villagers were arrested.”
CDF-Asho said they only attacked to seize weapons, and did no damage to the pipelines.
The resistance group was formed in January this year by soldiers, police, teachers, and health workers who have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement, as well as students and pro-democracy Asho people.
The Asho are an ethnic tribe of Chin people native to Magwe, Ayeyarwady and other parts of the country.
Construction of the pipelines, which stretch 973 kilometers from Rakhine coast to China’s Yunnan Province through Magwe and Mandalay regions and Shan State, began in 2011. They began operating in July 2013.
Resistance attacks on junta troops guarding the pipelines increased following then Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s visit to Myanmar in May, the highest-level visit by a Chinese official since the junta overthrew the democratically elected government in February 2021.
