Anti-regime groups ambushed a junta column raiding villages in Sagaing Region’s Budalin Township on Monday, killing scores of soldiers and capturing 40 others, according to a resistance group that took part in the ambush.
Combined forces of local People’s Defense Force (PDF) groups and a resistance group called 96 Soldiers attacked the junta column comprising around 120 troops between Sipaw and Kywe Thay Chaung villages.
Around 50 junta soldiers were killed in the ambush despite the junta’s air support, said Ko Nyan, the spokesman of 96 Soldiers.
“Around 40 were captured, and around 50 were killed,” he said. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the junta casualties. “This is the first time a junta column was badly beaten in southern Anyar [central Myanmar],” he added.
The group also released a video clip showing killed and captured junta soldiers and piles of weapons. It has alerted civilians nearby, as some junta soldiers escaped along with arms.
The junta column was dispatched as reinforcements by the Myanmar military’s North Western Command to Kutaw Village, whose police station anti-regime groups attacked on Sept. 20. Among the reinforcements were conscripts drafted by the regime under its mandatory military service law, according to anti-regime groups.
During its raids, the junta column killed one civilian in Kywe Thay Chaung Village, one elderly man in Katoe Village and two members of People’s Defense Teams in Yatkyay Village, said anti-regime groups.
Two resistance fighters died and some others were injured when the regime responded with airstrikes after resistance groups attacked the police station in Kutaw Village.
