Tamu Defense Force Kills at Least 15 Myanmar Junta Troops

By The Irrawaddy 12 May 2021

At least 15 junta soldiers died during two clashes with the Tamu People’s Defense Force (T-PDF) in Sagaing Region’s Tamu on the Indian border on Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

One civilian member of the T-PDF died and another was injured on Tuesday night.

A T-PDF member said five junta soldiers were killed in a clash near Pan Thar Village on Tuesday night, between 10:30 p.m. and midnight.

Another 10 soldiers were killed during an attack on a military post at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday in Kun Taung Village in Tamu district, he said.

Tamu residents formed the defense force, also known as the Tamu Security Group (TSG), and took up firearms and weapons to fight junta forces in late March, after junta troops killed an unarmed protester during a raid on a nighttime protest. They killed dozens of soldiers using grenades in downtown Tamu in April. Group members went into hiding following a brutal crackdown by junta forces in mid-April.

When the civilian National Unity Government’s People’s Defense Force (PDF) was formed last week, the TSG said it would cooperate with the PDF.

In the fighting this week, the defense force used guerilla-style warfare and ambushes to resume their attacks against junta forces.

“As we said, we will continue the fight against the military dictatorship to the end. We paused the fighting recently; now we are back,” the PDF member said.

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