Junta forces raided a site where anti-regime protesters were making homemade firearms and bombs and undergoing military training in Chaung-U Township, Sagaing Region around 4am on Thursday.
Nearly 100 regime soldiers raided the site in Ma Thae Gyo Ward and exchanged fire with young civilian resistance fighters.
“They raided the site and shot anyone on sight. Some resistance fighters are missing. We saw a resistance fighter arrested and five junta troops were injured. We can’t yet confirm casualties,” one resistance fighter told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
On Thursday evening, the military-owned Myawaddy TV claimed that two young persons were arrested in the raid and that 220 homemade firearms, 24 air guns and 80 homemade bombs were seized.
Residents of Ma Thae Gyo and nearby villages fled following the junta’s raid. Junta troops also took away food stockpiled by the anti-regime protesters, and burned down some houses and the stairway of the pagoda where they were camping while undergoing military training.
Resistance fighters in Chaung-U have asked their peers from other townships to help intercept junta reinforcements sent to the town.
The Facebook page of Chaung-U Generation-Z said five junta troops died in the shootout on Thursday. The Irrawaddy was unable to confirm that independently.
Locals have cut down trees on the road from Chaung-U to Yesagyo and Pakokku, as well as on inter-village roads in Chaung-U, to block any advancing regime forces.
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