Two civilian People’s Defense Force fighters were killed during a shootout with junta forces in Tanintharyi Region’s Dawei Township on Wednesday night.
A group of civilians who had been given weapons by junta forces and were guarding a school in Yaungmaw Village clashed with six civilian fighters from the Dawei Defense Team who attempted to raid the school at midnight on Wednesday.
During the prolonged two-hour firefight, junta soldiers and police arrived at the scene and helped the guards fight the six civilian resistance fighters.
In the firefight, two civilian fighters were killed and about five firearms were seized by the junta’s forces, according to U Aye, who is in charge of the villagers’ group performing security duty for the school.
The two bodies were taken away by the junta forces, U Aye told The Irrawaddy.
Local residents claimed U Aye and his colleagues are members of a pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee group that has been armed by the military junta.
However, U Aye said they are just night watchmen performing security for the school.
Following the clash, the junta soldiers deployed at the village and arrested five residents including a female villager, another local said.
Since early July, the military regime has been conducting tight inspections of the local population, blocking the entrance gates to the town and its villages after facing a series of bomb blasts and attacks.
In the township, civilian resistance fighters of the Dawei People’s Defense Force (DPDF), Dawei Defense Team (DDT), Tanintharyi Nationalities Congress and Tanintharyi Defense Force (TDF) have taken up arms and are fighting against the military junta’s forces.
However, the civilian resistance forces say they are limited to conducting ambushes and guerrilla attacks against junta troops at the moment, as they are short of weapons.
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