Around 20 Myanmar junta troops including pro-regime militia members were killed on Thursday as People’s Defense Force groups (PDFs) continued to attack regime targets across the country.
Also, a hospital was forced to close after being targeted by regime artillery, and a junta attack on a Christian Bible-study school of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Shan State left some students injured.
Incidents were reported in Karen and Shan states and Sagaing, Magwe and Yangon regions.
The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks by PDFs as well as the junta’s latest atrocities.
Some military casualties could not be independently verified.
Hospital targeted by junta artillery strikes in Karen
A 16-bed hospital was forced to close temporarily in Hpa-an Township, Karen State on Tuesday when Myanmar military forces at Light Infantry Battalion 408’s base fired five 120-mm heavy explosives at the clinic, said the Karen National Union (KNU) on Thursday.
The hospital was not damaged in the attack. However, patients, hospital staff and residents nearby were evacuated to safe areas, the KNU said.
In November last year, the regime’s Border Guard Force (BGF) looted drugs from the clinic and burned some of its materials.
Kachin Baptist Convention school bombed by regime in Shan
Four students of the Kachin Baptist Convention were injured in Kutkai Township, northern Shan State on Thursday night when a junta artillery shell hit their religious school building, according to local media reports.
The military base near the town randomly shelled nearby areas without provocation, local media outlet Kachinwaves reported, citing residents.
A video shows a student bedroom damaged by the junta’s explosives.
15 regime forces killed by PDF drone strikes in Sagaing
A PDF drone drops a bomb on a moving crowd in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday. / Zero Guerrilla Force
At least 15 regime forces including Pyu Saw Htee pro-regime militia members were killed in Ayadaw Township, Sagaing Region on Thursday morning when six local PDF groups used five drones to drop bombs on regime targets, claimed Zero Gurrilla Force from Mandalay Region, which coordinated the attacks.
The group said it also used drones to target a rally of pro-regime militia members and regime forces returning home after attending the funeral of a militia member who was killed in a PDF mine ambush the previous day.
The group’s drones also targeted regime bases in pro-regime Thalalba Village.
An aerial video shot by the PDF group shows some people being felled by a bomb dropped by a PDF drone on a crowd walking along a road.
However, it was not clear whether the people in the crowd were regime forces and militia members.
Three junta soldiers killed by PDF land mines in Sagaing
People’s Defense Force-Kalay claimed to have killed three regime troops and injured some others when they used land mines to ambush a military detachment of 80 soldiers near a technical university in Kale Township, Sagaing Region at 3 a.m. Thursday.
After the ambush, regime forces randomly opened fire on nearby areas for several minutes.
On that morning, a 71-year-old female resident of Htaukkyant Village in the township was injured when an artillery shell indiscriminately fired from a military base in Kale hit a rice storage building in the village, the PDF group said.
Regime forces attacked in Sagaing
Local resistance group Taze-PDF claimed to have attacked regime forces stationed at a petrol station in Taze Township, Sagaing Region using six improvised mortar shells on Thursday morning.
In the attack, two mortar shells exploded inside the military encampment, the PDF group said.
Military casualties were not known.
Regime forces bombed in Yangon
The underground resistance group Yangon Special Guerrilla Force claimed to have attacked regime forces stationed at Kyaikkasan Stadium in Tamwe Township, in the commercial capital Yangon, using a remote-controlled bomb on Thursday night.
However, military casualties were unknown.
Junta camp raided in Magwe
Some regime forces are believed to have been killed or injured in Myaing Township, Magwe Region on Thursday night when Myaing-PDF attacked six regime forces at a junta camp outside the town of Myaing, the PDF group said.
The junta forces responded with heavy explosives and automatic firearms, but there were no PDF casualties.
The PDF group claimed the raid was in response to the extrajudicial killings of five PDF detainees by regime forces near the border of Myaing and Pauk townships on Tuesday.
