Around 30 Myanmar junta soldiers were reportedly killed on Monday during a clash in Sagaing Region’s Katha Township with fighters from People’s Defense Forces (PDF) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
On early Monday, the combined force of the KIA and PDFs attacked over 50 regime troops deployed at Bant Bway Village located on the eastern banks of the Irrawaddy River, according to Katha-PDF.
The junta troops were travelling along the banks of the river as an escort for a military flotilla of six motorboats reportedly transporting food, weapons and ammunition from Mandalay Region to Kachin State in northern Myanmar.
The same flotilla was also attacked twice last week by the KIA and PDFs in Katha Township, while it was being escorted by both jets and soldiers on foot.
During two hours of fighting on Monday, the Myanmar military called in artillery strikes from Battalion 309 based in Katha Town and airstrikes from jet fighters.
A Katha-PDF official told the Irrawaddy on Tuesday that five flights were conducted by two regime jets, during which nine bombs were dropped on resistance targets.
However, all the KIA and PDF fighters managed to escape, having been tipped off in advance about the possibility of junta airstrikes.
Katha-PDF said also that many regime troops were killed when the junta jets mistakenly bombed their own forces in Bant Bway Village.
Citing local witnesses, Katha-PDF said that a military barge retrieved the bodies of dead and wounded soldiers from the village, claiming that around 30 junta soldiers were killed in the battle. Four resistance fighters suffered minor injuries.
However, The Irrawaddy was unable to confirm the military casualties independently.
On the previous Saturday, two firefights between regime forces and the combined KIA and PDF fighters took place on the Indaw-Kyaung Gone Road in neighboring Indaw Township in Sagaing, according to Indaw Revolution-IR, the media wing of Indaw-PDF.
The group said six junta soldiers and four resistance fighters were killed in the clashes.
Currently, regime forces are facing near-daily attacks from PDFs and ethnic armed organizations across the country.
