The Myanmar junta suffered further defeats and troop losses over the past three days as People’s Defense Force groups (PDFs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) continued to attack regime targets across the country.
Incidents were reported in Karen and Shan states and Sagaing and Mandalay regions. The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks from PDFs and EAOs.
Some military casualties could not be independently verified.
Junta reinforcements routed in resistance ambush in Karen State
Ethnic Karen resistance forces and allied PDF groups seized three military vehicles including an armored car and a machine gun during their ambush of a junta reinforcement column in Kawkareik Township, Karen State on Sunday, according to local media reports.
The military column, part of the regime’s Operation Aung Zeya was attacked while traveling to the border trade town of Myawaddy, which was recently seized by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and PDFs near the border with Thailand.
The junta has sent reinforcements to try and retake the border town, but they have been bogged down for several days due to a series of attacks by resistance groups. Regime forces bombed while patrolling near junta air base in Mandalay
Four regime forces were killed in Tada-U Township, Mandalay Region on Sunday when Kyaukse PDF and another resistance group triggered land mines to attack a military vehicle that was part of a security patrol for the junta’s Tada-U Air Base, the PDF groups said.
The military vehicle was damaged in the attack.
On March 17, local resistance groups used ten 107-mm rocket bombs and 90-mm explosives to attack the air base, which is next to Mandalay International Airport. Some hangars were reportedly damaged in the attacks.
Junta forces defeated in resistance attacks in Sagaing’s Kawlin
An intense clash broke out in the east of Kawlin town in Sagaing Region early on Sunday morning when Kawlin PDF attacked regime forces near Tanzue Village, according to Kawlin District PDF Battalion 1.
The clash intensified at noon as 80 junta reinforcements from Kawlin town arrived at the clash site and military bases in nearby Wuntho Township used howitzers and drones to attack the resistance forces. However, the junta troops retreated to Kawlin after being defeated. Resistance forces found the bodies of eight dead regime forces at the clash site, the PDF group said. Pro-junta militia village pounded in Sagaing
Chindwin Attack Force, which forms Monywa District PDF Battalion 4, said it and eight other resistance groups used over 50 makeshift rocket bombs to attack the pro-junta village of Taw Pu, where pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia groups have been formed, and which houses junta bases, in Monywa Township, Sagaing Region on Saturday.
At least six houses were damaged and around 20 military supporters were reportedly injured. The pro-junta militia and regime forces based in Tawpu Village are notorious for persecuting, looting, raiding and burning nearby villages in the township.
Junta police station raided in Shan State travel destination Ywangan
oe Phyu Revolution Force, a Ywangan PDF group, said it raided a police station in Myin Kya Doe Village on the Mandalay-Ywangan-Aungban Road in Ywangan Township, Shan State on Sunday, killing three regime forces.
The PDF forces also arrested a police officer and seized two weapons from the station.
Junta mounts fresh airstrikes to recapture border hub
Meanwhile, Myanmar junta forces launched two airstrikes on Myawaddy town early Monday morning in a renewed attempt to retake the border trade hub from Karen rebels.
Residents said the attacks occurred at around 1 am but were not close to the Second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, the flashpoint of fighting between regime troops and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allies on Friday and Saturday.
Casualty figures from Monday’s airstrike are as yet unknown, but at least seven civilians were killed and four wounded during fighting on Saturday, according to a local rescue team.
The KNLA and allies unleashed an onslaught against Infantry Battalion 275 headquarters in Myawaddy on April 10, forcing 150 junta troops led by the 44th Light Infantry Division commander to flee to a defensive position at the No. 2 Friendship Bridge.
KNLA-led forces attacked the troops on Friday night, triggering fierce fighting throughout Saturday that saw junta aircraft drop more than 130 bombs, according to residents and observers monitoring the fighting.
The bombing raids inflicted civilian casualties and property damage in the border town, residents said.
The two sides clashed again early Sunday morning when four junta warplanes dropped 12 bombs at around 4 am, according to the KNLA’s political wing, the Karen National Union.
The guns fell silent around 9 am as the KNLA and allies retreated from the bridge in response to the junta’s air attacks, said locals.
Thai news agencies reported that the commander of the 44th Light Infantry Division, Brigadier-General Soe Min Htet, was killed in Saturday’s fighting and his body was sent to Mae Sot Hospital. However, a Thai national who visited the hospital to confirm the reports told The Irrawaddy that Soe Min Htet’s body was not there, though other junta soldiers were receiving treatment at the hospital. KNLA sources also declined to confirm reports of Soe Min Htet’s death.
In the wake of the fighting, junta Defense Minister General Mya Tun Oo has summoned leaders of other ethnic Karen armed groups including the Karen Border Guard Force, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and the Karen National Liberation Army (Peace Council), according to KNU sources.
Mya Tun Oo is apparently covering for deputy junta chief Soe Win, who has not been seen in public since early April. Soe Win was reportedly injured in a resistance drone attack while visiting Southeastern Command headquarters in Mon State’s Mawlamyine to oversee military operations in Myawaddy.
The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and the KNLA (Peace Council) are signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and have engaged in peace talks with the regime since the coup.
The Karen State Border Guard Force split from the Myanmar military in January. The Irrawaddy’s calls to its chief Colonel Saw Chit Thu and spokesman Major Naing Maung Zaw to ask about their meeting with Mya Tun Oo went unanswered.
Refugees and Thailand’s response
Nearly 3,000 people have fled across the Moei River into Thailand’s Mae Sot district since the fighting broke out in Myawaddy.
However, Lt Gen Prasan Saengsirirak, the commander of the Thai Third Army which oversees the area, told Thai PBS on Monday morning that the number of Myanmar refugees in Mae Sot fell from about 3,000 on Sunday to about 1,000 on Monday as the fighting around Myawaddy eased and negotiations began.
The commander said the two sides in the conflict were now in talks and many of the people who had fled Myawaddy were now returning home from Mae Sot.
The Third Army has been closely monitoring the situation along the border since fighting broke out in Myawaddy.
It protested after a stray bullet from Myanmar hit a house in Mae Sot on Saturday.
The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) also has sent two F-16 fighter jets to patrol the airspace above Tak’s Mae Sot district on the border between Thailand and Myanmar.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin posted on Facebook that he did not want the battles to spill over the border and said he would visit Mae Sot on Tuesday to monitor events, including border trade, and offer moral support to locals and security officials.
