Natogyi People’s Defense Force (PDF) claimed it killed nearly 50 regime troops and detained 14 others in Natogyi Township, Mandalay Region, on Sunday morning.
The PDF said on Tuesday that it and its allies attacked around 200 regime troops commanded by military strategist Zeyar Aung.
The regime force, which retreated to the Wetlu village police station in the north of the township after a junta airstrike, was advancing on villages when it was attacked, the group said.
The PDF said the retreating soldiers carried away injured comrades with them.
Around 27 regime troops were killed in the attack and 14 others, including Major Win Hlaing Oo and Captain Aung Ko Ko, were detained, said Natogyi PDF.
Citing two soldiers who defected to the resistance on Tuesday, the PDF said 20 more injured soldiers died at Wetlu police station and 15 others were injured.
Three resistance fighters were killed and seven others injured in the fighting.
“Some of those killed were from my neighboring village. Others were seriously injured,” a Natogyi resident told The Irrawaddy.
Two Myingyan District resistance groups ambushed and killed three regime troops from Wetlu police station while they were searching for food in the village on February 18.
The resistance groups said they defeated troops from Pyin Si village in the east of the township on January 30, killing 21 regime troops and detaining eight others.
The rest escaped after an airstrike by an MI-35 helicopter, according to the PDF.
