More than 18,000 Myanmar junta soldiers were killed by ethnic armed organizations and people’s defense forces in the last 12 months, according to the civilian National Unity Government (NUG).
The NUG’s defense ministry said from June 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, there were 5,337 clashes, claiming 18,116 junta lives and causing 6,128 junta injuries.
It said junta forces killed 2,908 people and wounded 1,911.
The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the figures.
Since late March last year, people have taken up homemade weapons, including slingshots, air guns and firearms, to resist the junta in response to the killing of peaceful, anti-regime protesters across the country.
Resistance forces stepped up operations against the regime after the NUG declared war on the regime on September 7 last year.
On August 1, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing admitted his regime did not fully control the country more than 18 months after the coup.
He said that by July 23, there had been 7,246 attacks conducted with bombs, grenades and mines and 6,567 targeted assaults and murders of regime forces and their allies, with Sagaing Region seeing the most attacks, followed by Yangon, Mandalay and Magwe regions.
He said the junta faced escalating attacks in Sagaing, Magwe, Kayah and Kayah in the past six months as the Kachin Independence Army and Karen National Union provided large numbers of troops and military equipment, including arms and ammunition.
Meanwhile, the regime has escalated atrocities in resistance strongholds, including arbitrary arrests, killing civilians, extrajudicial execution, shelling residential areas, using civilians as human shields and looting and burning houses nearly every day.
