Over 30 Myanmar junta soldiers were reportedly killed in Kale Township, Sagaing Region this week when a combined force of People’s Defense Forces (PDF), including ethnic Chin resistance groups, attacked a military detachment for three days.
Clashes started on Monday when the resistance groups ambushed some 200 military regime troops travelling the Kale-Falam road in the south of the township, according to Kale-PDF, who coordinated the attacks.
The detachment was travelling to the town of Kale from a military base in Yangyi Aung Village in the south of Kale Township.
An intense firefight between the junta troops and the PDFs broke out at Hakhalay Village for several hours. Three regime soldiers were killed in the battle.
One ethnic Chin resistance fighter, Salai Lal Biak San, 37, from the Chin National Defense Force (CNDF) was killed, while another resistance member suffered minor injuries, said the CNDF.
On Tuesday, the resistance groups continued to attack the regime detachment near Sitha Village while they were heading to Kale along the Kale-Gangaw road. Five more junta soldiers were reportedly killed in the ambush.
A child from a farm near the village was injured by regime heavy weapons, said Kale-PDF.
The next day, Wednesday, the junta detachment was attacked again near Tharyargone Village. The PDFs said that they used landmines in the ambush and that more than 20 regime troops were killed in three hours of fighting. One Kale-PDF fighter was killed in the clash.
On Wednesday afternoon, the junta detachment finally reached its base camp at Kale’s Technological University.
Citing sources, Kale-PDF said that two trucks made eight trips to a cemetery in the township to transport the bodies of the soldiers killed in the fighting.
On July 9 and 10, the same military detachment torched 35 houses and looted five houses in three villages in Chin State’s Falam Township while they were travelling to Kale Township, said the Chin National Organization, the political wing of the CNDF.
Regime forces are facing daily attacks from PDFs and ethnic armed organizations nationwide.
