Some 90 Myanmar Junta Soldiers Killed During Intense Weekend Fighting

By The Irrawaddy 11 October 2021

Around 90 junta soldiers were reportedly killed during intense clashes with civilian resistance fighters in Sagaing and Magwe regions and Kayah State on the weekend.

Around six junta soldiers were killed in Pale Township, Sagaing Region on Sunday when the Pale People’s Defense Force (PPDF) ambushed junta troops who were traveling on motorbikes and an express bus. The express bus carrying junta troops overturned after being hit in a mine blast, the PPDF said.

Another 12 junta police were reportedly killed when PPDF members attacked a police vehicle in the township.

Early Saturday morning, a combined force comprising members of 10 local civilian armed resistance groups attacked a police station in Kyauk Yit Village in Sagaing Region’s Myaung Township where junta troops are deployed, according to a statement from the Civilian Defense and Security Organization of Myaung (CDSOM).

The civilian resistance forces used rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) to attack the police station. There were around 15 military casualties, the group said.

Using landmines, other members of the combined force attacked two military vehicles carrying reinforcements from Chaung-U to Myaung Township to help the junta forces at the besieged Kyauk Yit Police Station.

At least 35 junta soldiers were killed and the two military vehicles were damaged in the attack, the CDSOM claimed.

In the morning, a military convoy carrying about 100 junta troops was hit by four landmine blasts between Kyauktan Village and Thiri Zayar Village in the township.

A military vehicle traveling separately was also attacked with a landmine on the Kyauk Yit-Myaung Highway that morning. However, the number of military casualties sustained in the two attacks is still unknown.

Additionally, another military vehicle carrying provisions was damaged in a landmine attack carried out by the People’s Defense Force-Yesagyo while traveling to Myaung Township, Sagaing Region from Yesagyo Township, Magwe Region. The number of military casualties remains unknown.

At 5 a.m. on Saturday, around 150 junta soldiers traveling on the Saw-Kyaukhtu Highway in Magwe Region were attacked by civilian fighters of the Yaw Defense Force (YDF) using more than 40 mines and firing seven heavy explosive rounds.

During a prolonged 11-hour firefight, at least 20 junta soldiers and a civilian resistance fighter were killed and many military regime troops were injured, the YDF said.

On Sunday morning, the Taze People Comrades-(TPC) used mines to ambush a group of junta forces traveling on motorbikes in Taze Township, Sagaing Region. There were two military casualties, the TPC said.

After suffering more than 1,500 military casualties in the last four months alone, Myanmar’s junta has deployed at least four battalions of reinforcements—around 3,000 soldiers—to conduct clearance operations against civilian resistance forces in Sagaing and Magwe regions and neighboring Chin State.

Due to the mass deployment of heavy weapons and junta troops in the areas, the UN’s human rights office said last Friday it is concerned that a serious attack against the civilian population is imminent.

Myanmar junta forces have used heavy explosives, jet fighters and helicopters in recent clashes with civilian resistance fighters, who are mostly armed with old-fashioned homemade hunting guns and homemade mines, in Sagaing, Magwe regions and Chin State.

On Saturday evening, two firefights broke out between junta troops and Karenni civilian resistance forces in Hpruso Township, Kayah State, according to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF).

The military sustained casualties in the firefights, the KNDF said.

On Sunday morning, a firefight between junta troops and members of the KNDF broke out at 6 Mile village in Demoso Township, Kayah State after junta troops arrested and gunned down two displaced civilians who had returned home to fetch food.

After being arrested, one of the two civilians was shot dead and the other, with a gunshot wound to the head, was saved by Karenni fighters from the hands of the junta soldiers, according to Karenni armed forces.

The group said junta troops deployed near the Ngwe Saung Dam in Demoso Township randomly fired on a nearby village with heavy explosives.

With the exception of Rakhine State, civilian resistance fighters from People Defense Force groups across the country have stepped up operations against junta troops since Sept. 7, when the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) declared a people’s defensive war against the junta.

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