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Live Conflict Myanmar Civil War
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More than 20 junta troops, including a high-ranking officer, were reportedly killed on Thursday and Friday during ambushes by People’s Defense Forces (PDF) across the country, with the most fatalities in Yangon and Magwe regions. Dozens of civilian casualties were also reported in junta crackdowns.
On Thursday morning, the Karen National Union seized two military camps in Karen State.
Three junta soldiers, including a deputy battalion commander, were reportedly killed in Sanchaung Township, Yangon Region, on Thursday when PDF volunteers attacked a military vehicle.
Following the attack, junta soldiers in around 10 vehicles blocked roads in the township. A video showed soldiers opening fire at random and swearing at a roadblock in Sanchaung. The area was still surrounded by the military on Friday.
Myanmar has seen growing violence between junta troops and PDFs after the declaration of a people’s war against the regime by the civilian National Unity Government (NUG).
When declaring a state of emergency on Tuesday, the NUG’s acting president Duwa Lashi La called on all people to “revolt against the rule of the military terrorists” led by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing across the country.
Since the declaration, the military regime has been escalating inspections, arrests and raids while PDFs have stepped up attacks.
At least 15 to 20 junta soldiers were reportedly killed in Kyaukhtu in Magwe Region on Thursday morning in a PDF landmine attack on four military vehicles, according to the PDF.
More than 22 civilians, including PDF members, were killed and others wounded by junta forces in Magwe Region and Chin and Kayah states on Thursday.
On Friday morning, an intense shootout between junta troops and the Gangaw PDF in Magwe Region occurred in Hnan Khar village on the Kale highway, which connects Magwe and Sagaing regions, according to the group’s leader.
On Thursday junta troops torched more than 20 houses in Myintha village in Gangaw Township after several resistance attacks on the Gangaw-Kalay highway.
During the raid, 22 teenage villagers who fought back with homemade firearms were killed by junta troops, according to a resident.
The bodies of teenagers who were killed while attempting to protect a Gangaw Township village during a junta raid on Thursday. / CJ
Also on Thursday, four civilians, including a nine-month-old baby, were injured in random junta shooting after being attacked by civilian Chinland Defense Force at the Chin State mountaintop town of Thantlang.
Houses were damaged by the gunfire and another was blown up by junta explosives, according to residents.
In response to PDF attacks in Demoso Township, Kayah State, troops used explosives and shot at random in the town’s residential areas on Thursday.
A woman was killed and four others injured by junta explosives in Bawlakhe Township, Kayah State, on Thursday when junta troops used explosives on farmers near Nan Hpe village, according to the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force.
A firefight between Laungon PDF and the Pyu-Saw-Htee militia, which is trained and armed by the junta, was reported at Launglon Township, Tanintharyi Region, on Friday morning.
In the shootout, junta-appointed village administrator U Zaw Myo Oo, also a Pyu-Saw-Htee commander, was killed and other members were injured, the PDF leader told The Irrawaddy.
Myanmar’s junta is also being attacked by ethnic armed groups in Kachin, Shan, Kayah, Mon and Karen states and Sagaing and Tanintharyi regions.
By Thursday, almost 1,060 people had been killed by the junta forces, according to the advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
More than 7,990 people, including elected government leaders, have been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.
Junta Troops Killed in Civilian Attacks Across Myanmar
The regime has lost two bases to the Karen National Union and 22 teenage volunteers were killed in a regime raid in Magwe Region.
www.irrawaddy.com
Myanmar’s military has warned Muslim village leaders in Kyauktaw Township, Rakhine State, not to complain to the ethnic Rakhine armed group, the Arakan Army, and its political wing the United League of Arakan.
The AA and Myanmar’s military engaged in heavy fighting for almost three years, with the military suffering heavy casualties and leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced. But the fighting ceased in November 2020.
Following the Feb. 1 coup, the AA has asserted its political control across much of Rakhine State, appointed political affairs officers and began making administrative decisions. It has since taken a grip over judicial decisions.
A village leader, who asked not to be named, said the commander of military’s Light Infantry Battalion 375 summoned administrators and community representatives from five villages – Pikethe, Pauktaw Plaung, Guppi Htaung, Shwe Lai and Pauktaw-Taung Oo – to its headquarters on September 6 and were told not to complain to the AA.
“They told us to file complaints with the police or general administrative departments and not the AA. If they cannot help, they told us to speak to the military,” he said.
The village leader said the commander of the battalion and Military Operations Command 9, based in Kyauktaw, attended the meeting. He said they were told the AA does not form a legitimate government.
AA chief Major General Twan Myat Naing told an overseas-based media group last month that the group is taking legal advice about exerting executive and judicial control in Rakhine State. He said there are also plans to administer Muslim villages.
Kyauktaw’s Muslim villagers said their representatives are solving administrative issues as the police are not taking responsibility for any crimes.
Myanmar Military Tells Muslims Not to Contact Arakan Army
The Arakan Army is increasingly taking control of large areas of Rakhine State but Muslim representatives have been told not to approach the armed group with issues.
www.irrawaddy.com
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The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) managed to take over a Myanmar military base in Bago Region on Thursday, a spokesperson for the political wing of the organisation said.
Saw Ywar Kwee Doo of the Karen National Union’s (KNU) central information department confirmed that the base is located in Kyaukkyi Township, but said that further details from the ground were not yet available.
Another KNU member told Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity that the attacking forces were a coalition of troops from the KNLA’s Brigades 5 and 3, and that the base was located in the Kapaw Du area.
“The attack started at 6am and ended at 8am. We had no casualties on our side. We have secured the base now,” he said.
A KNU statement published following the attack said that the military had flown over the occupied base with a jet in what appeared to be a surveillance effort, and that they would release further statements on any casualties at a later date.
The base was strategically located between the third and fifth brigade’s territory, a Karen local explained.
“You could get to Brigade 3 and Brigade 5 through that base. You could get to the Salween Peace Park through it as well,” the local said, referring to the environmental and cultural conservation initiative located in Karen territory in the Salween River Basin.
The KNLA seized the military base in question some 48 hours after Myanmar’s shadow administration, the National Unity Government, declared war on the junta on Tuesday morning. On September 4, the KNU had released a statement declaring that they would collaborate with any organisation dedicated to ending the military dictatorship.
“The military council is not just the KNU’s enemy. They are the common enemy for the entire population of Myanmar,” the KNU member said. “We definitely don’t want to go to war, but they left us no choice but to revolt against them just so we are able to get autonomy and self-determination.”
“What we want is not out of line. All the people of Myanmar know the truth now,” he added.
Clashes have broken out throughout the territory of the KNLA’s seven brigades in eastern and southeastern Myanmar since the February 1 coup, but have been particularly intense in Brigade 5.
In August alone, more than 200 battles between Karen forces and the military had occurred in the Brigades 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 areas.
Military offensives by the junta against the KNLA had not been launched since the coup in Brigade 4—the Dawei and Myeik area of Tanintharyi Region—but after the NUG’s announcement, fighting reached that area as well.
The KNLA had previously occupied two other Myanmar military bases in Mutraw District, the area under the control of its fifth brigade, at Thee Mu Hta and Thaw Lei Hta on March 27 and April 27, respectively.
Saw Ywar Kwee Doo of the Karen National Union’s (KNU) central information department confirmed that the base is located in Kyaukkyi Township, but said that further details from the ground were not yet available.
Another KNU member told Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity that the attacking forces were a coalition of troops from the KNLA’s Brigades 5 and 3, and that the base was located in the Kapaw Du area.
“The attack started at 6am and ended at 8am. We had no casualties on our side. We have secured the base now,” he said.
A KNU statement published following the attack said that the military had flown over the occupied base with a jet in what appeared to be a surveillance effort, and that they would release further statements on any casualties at a later date.
The base was strategically located between the third and fifth brigade’s territory, a Karen local explained.
“You could get to Brigade 3 and Brigade 5 through that base. You could get to the Salween Peace Park through it as well,” the local said, referring to the environmental and cultural conservation initiative located in Karen territory in the Salween River Basin.
The KNLA seized the military base in question some 48 hours after Myanmar’s shadow administration, the National Unity Government, declared war on the junta on Tuesday morning. On September 4, the KNU had released a statement declaring that they would collaborate with any organisation dedicated to ending the military dictatorship.
“The military council is not just the KNU’s enemy. They are the common enemy for the entire population of Myanmar,” the KNU member said. “We definitely don’t want to go to war, but they left us no choice but to revolt against them just so we are able to get autonomy and self-determination.”
“What we want is not out of line. All the people of Myanmar know the truth now,” he added.
Clashes have broken out throughout the territory of the KNLA’s seven brigades in eastern and southeastern Myanmar since the February 1 coup, but have been particularly intense in Brigade 5.
In August alone, more than 200 battles between Karen forces and the military had occurred in the Brigades 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 areas.
Military offensives by the junta against the KNLA had not been launched since the coup in Brigade 4—the Dawei and Myeik area of Tanintharyi Region—but after the NUG’s announcement, fighting reached that area as well.
The KNLA had previously occupied two other Myanmar military bases in Mutraw District, the area under the control of its fifth brigade, at Thee Mu Hta and Thaw Lei Hta on March 27 and April 27, respectively.
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An extensive sabotage campaign targeting Mytel’s telecommunication infrastructure is expected to hit Burma’s generals—and Vietnam’s government—with costs that could run into tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. Unsurprisingly, the military is stepping up attempts to protect their investment.
Following the National Unity Government’s D-Day announcement this Tuesday, scores of Mytel transmission towers and substations have been destroyed by Burma’s enlivened resistance groups in what appears to be a targeted campaign to root out the provider.
Well-documented information provided to DVB by People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) operating within Burma suggests that, during four days of operations, well over 60 towers have been critically disabled. The majority are located in the bloody new frontline of the conflict: the Sagaing-Magaway borderlands.
Telecommunication infrastructure presents an obvious target to resistance groups operating with questionable supplies of arms and ammunition, yet evidentially a firm grounding in the manufacture of IEDs. Attacks on towers also represent an easy PR win: scores of videos, filmed by PDFs whilst documenting the recent attacks, have met with an almost universally warm reception across Burmese social media.
Predictably, the purposeful targeting of Mytel is already causing tangible irritation amongst the company’s shareholders in Naypyitaw. On Friday—a day in which DVB recorded 36 cases of effective sabotage—we received a leaked internal directive in which the junta calls for the upping of security provisions for Mytel infrastructure. A visibly rattled junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was depicted on state-media furiously challenging PDFs, demanding they “fight [junta] forces, rather than cowardly attacking non-living targets”.
Oblivious to the military’s frustrations, attacks on Mytel continued through the night and into the morning, suggesting the Tatmadaw—now fighting increasingly intensive and complex battles on almost all fronts—are struggling to protect the company’s assets; following Min Aung Hlaing’s bluster, five towers were torched in Khin U near Myitkyina, two were destroyed in Taze, and one was dramatically felled in Ye U. After daybreak on Saturday, a tower near Kyaikto, Mon State, was blown from its foundations.
In the eyes of the civilian resistance, Mytel firmly represents more than a “non-living target”. A young spokesperson for Minmu PDF—which claims to have recently sabotaged two Mytel towers in Sagaing Region—told DVB that before attacks are launched, PDF members check with local residents to verify the ownership of a tower.
“We specifically target Mytel because it is one pillar of the military. We fight to destroy each and every one of the pillars.”
These good intentions aside, Radio Free Asia recently reported that, despite at least 35 of recently attacked towers being solely operated by Mytel, five were leased to the company by owners Ooredoo (Qatar) and Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunication company recently controversially purchased by Lebanon’s M1 Group.
Burma’s other major telecom providers have yet to comment on the attacks, which may yet pose a risk to broader cellular provision within the country: one tower can in theory carry the networks of a multitude of service providers across several villages. For many, this is something of a moot point: the military have, since February, sporadically cut services other than Mytel whilst desperately attempting to force Burma’s citizens into a relationship with their provider.
It is also understood that the Tatmadaw has established its own private Mytel networks with secure infrastructure embedded within military bases and monasteries, systems that utilise vast fibre-optic networks under the control of the Directorate of Signals. Obviously, the existence of such a system downplays the importance of the attacks for military communications per se.
Minmu PDF’s spokesperson agrees that their operations do perhaps pose more immediate risks to the communities that the groups are tasked with protecting:
“We expect that the military may attack villages in revenge for the bombing of towers. We have reports of an increased army presence, with plainclothes officers patrolling our towns.”
So where is the gain for Burma’s PDFs? The most obvious answer is, as the guerrilla fighters well know, an attack on Mytel is a direct attack on the bank of Min Aung Hlaing.
Research by DVB suggests that each Mytel tower has a value of between US$200,000 and US$300,000: a significant burden to bear for Mytel, who now face the dilemma of establishing security measures to protect somewhere in the region of 4,488 transmission towers and 14,129 base transceiver stations (according to figures published by Burma’s Ministry of Transport and Communication in May 2020).
“Our attacks interrupt connectivity for Mytel users, and that is one of our objectives, to damage the service and cut the military’s revenue streams.”
Mytel’s infrastructure was developed following the launch of a joint-venture between the Tatmadaw and Viettel Global Investment JSC., an investment subsidiary of Viettel Global, Vietnam’s state-owned telecom.
According to financials leaked from the group in 2020, Viettel’s committed investment in the venture is US$859.95 million, representing a 49 percent equity stake: an ownership structure which suggests that 49 percent of all of Mytel’s towers are under the ownership of the Vietnamese state. The Vietnamese government’s venture company has yet to make a public statement on the attacks, despite the clear and present threat to the country’s already sizeable investment; any move on the behalf of Viettel would undoubtedly risk drawing Vietnam into debates on the wider political dynamics of the attacks, something Hanoi will look to defer, perhaps indefinitely.
Activist group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) claim that, pre-coup Mytel revenues reached approximately US$700 million per annum; a significant and highly visible source of off-budget income for Burma’s generals who own a 28 percent share of Mytel through Star High Co. Ltd., a venture owned and established by the Myanmar Economic Corporation, a Tatmadaw conglomerate sanctioned by the USA, UK, and EU (and not, as far as can be established, by Min Aung Hlaing’s son, Aung Pyae Sone, as one popular myth has it—although, one other argument oft given by PDFs for the bombings—that Mytel loses will be covered by Aung Pyae Sone’s insurance firm, Aung Myint Mo Min—is more feasible).
The junta guarantees its majority share by retaining 23 percent of Mytel’s equity in Myanmar National Telecom Holdings, an opaque special project vehicle which, according to JFM, “appears to reward loyal cronies and children of top military generals”.
Aside from the economic damage caused to the Tatmadaw by the sabotage campaign, PDF members also highlight the strategic importance of their mission. One PDF member from Shwebo told DVB:
“We only target Mytel, because they use stolen wealth to murder the Burmese people. Also, by causing distractions to the security forces we weaken their ability to kill our partners in the revolution. They are too weak to protect their towers—we will attack them where they are soft.”
Supporting the claims of PDF groups, Justice for Myanmar last year published an extensive report into the operations of Mytel off the back of a data breach by its Vietnamese partner. One of the reports many crucial findings was that Mytel’s strengthening links with Viettel allowed the Tatmadaw to “expand… its financial infrastructure”, helping “facilitate the military’s criminal conduct and the offshoring of the country’s wealth” by the military and its cronies.
This came in addition to well-founded accusations that the group is involved in spying on users and data-mining their information. Representing a serious conflict of interest, tenders for the erection of towers were famously given to a company owned by Min Aung Hlaing’s daughter and National Tower Development, another Singapore venture with links—through director Patrick Aung—to Burmese arms seller Aero Sofi. Mytel has also been accused of land rights abuses, including illegally developing infrastructure through ethnic Kayin land.
The Minmu PDF spokesperson confirmed to DVB that as far as their group is concerned, telecom towers are just the start:
“We don’t see operations against towers as a soft option. We are building up: soon, you will see our group target other infrastructure that supports military operations… like bridges… The vengeance we get from the destruction [of Mytel infrastructure] in no way yet satisfies the public after what the military have done to us.”
The PDFs’ nose-thumbing appears to be paying off, with the attacks on Mytel immediately rousing the attention of the Tatmadaw. Today, the junta’s Information Minister, Zaw Min Tun, likened PDF saboteurs to the Taliban, openly announcing that those involved would receive a “death sentence”.
Captain Lin Htet Aung, a high-ranking defector now aiding revolutionary forces, understands the junta’s fear. The soldier told DVB that the attacks represent a sensible strategic move for the PDFs:
“The army does not have enough security personnel to protect all of their towers. If they were to secure all of them, they would lose the ability to deploy to frontlines and other current areas of conflict”.
Shortly before this new wave of attacks, Mytel had relaunched its business page on Facebook, suggesting the PDFs bombings have begun during an upsurge in the company’s confidence.
Mytel had waited for seven months to reactive their account, in light of the fierce boycott of military-owned companies that followed February’s coup. The move has reignited a popular campaign amongst Burma’s netizens to ban the company from social media.
In February 2020, Facebook removed 13 accounts and ten pages operated by Mytel for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. A trail linking pages to Mytel, Viettel, and Vietnamese PR firm Gapit Communications showed how the group had used fake accounts to discredit competing telecom companies and proliferate nationalist messaging. The company had spent over US$1,115,000 on promoting these accounts before they were removed.
Through a strategy premised in dirty tricks, market manipulation, and human rights abuses, Mytel had gained ten million users to its network before February’s coup. The only feasible way for the company to retain this market share will be by resorting to force.
But, as usual, its genocidal directors are ready for a fight.
english.dvb.no
Following the National Unity Government’s D-Day announcement this Tuesday, scores of Mytel transmission towers and substations have been destroyed by Burma’s enlivened resistance groups in what appears to be a targeted campaign to root out the provider.
Well-documented information provided to DVB by People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) operating within Burma suggests that, during four days of operations, well over 60 towers have been critically disabled. The majority are located in the bloody new frontline of the conflict: the Sagaing-Magaway borderlands.
Telecommunication infrastructure presents an obvious target to resistance groups operating with questionable supplies of arms and ammunition, yet evidentially a firm grounding in the manufacture of IEDs. Attacks on towers also represent an easy PR win: scores of videos, filmed by PDFs whilst documenting the recent attacks, have met with an almost universally warm reception across Burmese social media.
Predictably, the purposeful targeting of Mytel is already causing tangible irritation amongst the company’s shareholders in Naypyitaw. On Friday—a day in which DVB recorded 36 cases of effective sabotage—we received a leaked internal directive in which the junta calls for the upping of security provisions for Mytel infrastructure. A visibly rattled junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was depicted on state-media furiously challenging PDFs, demanding they “fight [junta] forces, rather than cowardly attacking non-living targets”.
Oblivious to the military’s frustrations, attacks on Mytel continued through the night and into the morning, suggesting the Tatmadaw—now fighting increasingly intensive and complex battles on almost all fronts—are struggling to protect the company’s assets; following Min Aung Hlaing’s bluster, five towers were torched in Khin U near Myitkyina, two were destroyed in Taze, and one was dramatically felled in Ye U. After daybreak on Saturday, a tower near Kyaikto, Mon State, was blown from its foundations.
In the eyes of the civilian resistance, Mytel firmly represents more than a “non-living target”. A young spokesperson for Minmu PDF—which claims to have recently sabotaged two Mytel towers in Sagaing Region—told DVB that before attacks are launched, PDF members check with local residents to verify the ownership of a tower.
“We specifically target Mytel because it is one pillar of the military. We fight to destroy each and every one of the pillars.”
These good intentions aside, Radio Free Asia recently reported that, despite at least 35 of recently attacked towers being solely operated by Mytel, five were leased to the company by owners Ooredoo (Qatar) and Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunication company recently controversially purchased by Lebanon’s M1 Group.
Burma’s other major telecom providers have yet to comment on the attacks, which may yet pose a risk to broader cellular provision within the country: one tower can in theory carry the networks of a multitude of service providers across several villages. For many, this is something of a moot point: the military have, since February, sporadically cut services other than Mytel whilst desperately attempting to force Burma’s citizens into a relationship with their provider.
It is also understood that the Tatmadaw has established its own private Mytel networks with secure infrastructure embedded within military bases and monasteries, systems that utilise vast fibre-optic networks under the control of the Directorate of Signals. Obviously, the existence of such a system downplays the importance of the attacks for military communications per se.
Minmu PDF’s spokesperson agrees that their operations do perhaps pose more immediate risks to the communities that the groups are tasked with protecting:
“We expect that the military may attack villages in revenge for the bombing of towers. We have reports of an increased army presence, with plainclothes officers patrolling our towns.”
So where is the gain for Burma’s PDFs? The most obvious answer is, as the guerrilla fighters well know, an attack on Mytel is a direct attack on the bank of Min Aung Hlaing.
Research by DVB suggests that each Mytel tower has a value of between US$200,000 and US$300,000: a significant burden to bear for Mytel, who now face the dilemma of establishing security measures to protect somewhere in the region of 4,488 transmission towers and 14,129 base transceiver stations (according to figures published by Burma’s Ministry of Transport and Communication in May 2020).
“Our attacks interrupt connectivity for Mytel users, and that is one of our objectives, to damage the service and cut the military’s revenue streams.”
Mytel’s infrastructure was developed following the launch of a joint-venture between the Tatmadaw and Viettel Global Investment JSC., an investment subsidiary of Viettel Global, Vietnam’s state-owned telecom.
According to financials leaked from the group in 2020, Viettel’s committed investment in the venture is US$859.95 million, representing a 49 percent equity stake: an ownership structure which suggests that 49 percent of all of Mytel’s towers are under the ownership of the Vietnamese state. The Vietnamese government’s venture company has yet to make a public statement on the attacks, despite the clear and present threat to the country’s already sizeable investment; any move on the behalf of Viettel would undoubtedly risk drawing Vietnam into debates on the wider political dynamics of the attacks, something Hanoi will look to defer, perhaps indefinitely.
Activist group Justice for Myanmar (JFM) claim that, pre-coup Mytel revenues reached approximately US$700 million per annum; a significant and highly visible source of off-budget income for Burma’s generals who own a 28 percent share of Mytel through Star High Co. Ltd., a venture owned and established by the Myanmar Economic Corporation, a Tatmadaw conglomerate sanctioned by the USA, UK, and EU (and not, as far as can be established, by Min Aung Hlaing’s son, Aung Pyae Sone, as one popular myth has it—although, one other argument oft given by PDFs for the bombings—that Mytel loses will be covered by Aung Pyae Sone’s insurance firm, Aung Myint Mo Min—is more feasible).
The junta guarantees its majority share by retaining 23 percent of Mytel’s equity in Myanmar National Telecom Holdings, an opaque special project vehicle which, according to JFM, “appears to reward loyal cronies and children of top military generals”.
Aside from the economic damage caused to the Tatmadaw by the sabotage campaign, PDF members also highlight the strategic importance of their mission. One PDF member from Shwebo told DVB:
“We only target Mytel, because they use stolen wealth to murder the Burmese people. Also, by causing distractions to the security forces we weaken their ability to kill our partners in the revolution. They are too weak to protect their towers—we will attack them where they are soft.”
Supporting the claims of PDF groups, Justice for Myanmar last year published an extensive report into the operations of Mytel off the back of a data breach by its Vietnamese partner. One of the reports many crucial findings was that Mytel’s strengthening links with Viettel allowed the Tatmadaw to “expand… its financial infrastructure”, helping “facilitate the military’s criminal conduct and the offshoring of the country’s wealth” by the military and its cronies.
This came in addition to well-founded accusations that the group is involved in spying on users and data-mining their information. Representing a serious conflict of interest, tenders for the erection of towers were famously given to a company owned by Min Aung Hlaing’s daughter and National Tower Development, another Singapore venture with links—through director Patrick Aung—to Burmese arms seller Aero Sofi. Mytel has also been accused of land rights abuses, including illegally developing infrastructure through ethnic Kayin land.
The Minmu PDF spokesperson confirmed to DVB that as far as their group is concerned, telecom towers are just the start:
“We don’t see operations against towers as a soft option. We are building up: soon, you will see our group target other infrastructure that supports military operations… like bridges… The vengeance we get from the destruction [of Mytel infrastructure] in no way yet satisfies the public after what the military have done to us.”
The PDFs’ nose-thumbing appears to be paying off, with the attacks on Mytel immediately rousing the attention of the Tatmadaw. Today, the junta’s Information Minister, Zaw Min Tun, likened PDF saboteurs to the Taliban, openly announcing that those involved would receive a “death sentence”.
Captain Lin Htet Aung, a high-ranking defector now aiding revolutionary forces, understands the junta’s fear. The soldier told DVB that the attacks represent a sensible strategic move for the PDFs:
“The army does not have enough security personnel to protect all of their towers. If they were to secure all of them, they would lose the ability to deploy to frontlines and other current areas of conflict”.
Shortly before this new wave of attacks, Mytel had relaunched its business page on Facebook, suggesting the PDFs bombings have begun during an upsurge in the company’s confidence.
Mytel had waited for seven months to reactive their account, in light of the fierce boycott of military-owned companies that followed February’s coup. The move has reignited a popular campaign amongst Burma’s netizens to ban the company from social media.
In February 2020, Facebook removed 13 accounts and ten pages operated by Mytel for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. A trail linking pages to Mytel, Viettel, and Vietnamese PR firm Gapit Communications showed how the group had used fake accounts to discredit competing telecom companies and proliferate nationalist messaging. The company had spent over US$1,115,000 on promoting these accounts before they were removed.
Through a strategy premised in dirty tricks, market manipulation, and human rights abuses, Mytel had gained ten million users to its network before February’s coup. The only feasible way for the company to retain this market share will be by resorting to force.
But, as usual, its genocidal directors are ready for a fight.
From Boycott to Bombings: PDFs launch D-Day war on Mytel
Latest news, business, comment and features from the leading independent Burmese media outlet
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Almost 50 junta soldiers and police were reportedly killed during two attacks by civilian resistance fighters on junta outposts in Chin State and Magwe Region on the weekend.
Civilian resistance fighters of the Chinland Defense Force seized and burned down a military outpost in Thantlang Township, Chin State on Saturday night.
Around 200 troops from a combined force of the Chinland Defense Force-Thantlang (CDF-T) and the Chin National Association (CNA) started attacking the military outpost in Lungler Village near the Indian border west of Thantlang on Friday.
The civilian resistance forces had to retreat from the firefight that day as they were bombarded by the junta’s jets, according to a statement from the CDF-T.
The CDF-T said they managed to seize the military outpost on Saturday night when 400 civilian resistance fighters attacked the outpost a second time.
During the firefight, 12 junta soldiers were killed and eight civilian resistance fighters were injured.
The CDF-T said they burned down the military outpost after seizing firearms and ammunition from the base camp.
Separately, a combined force from the Yaw-Defense Force (YDF) and Chin Defense Force-Mindat (CDF-M) raided a police outpost in Gangaw Township, Magwe Region early on Sunday morning.
At 2 a.m. on Sunday, five junta police officers were killed when the civilian resistance raided the police outpost in Minywar Village, located to the south of Gangaw. Three civilian resistance fighters were injured in the firefight.
A leader of CDF-Mindat told The Irrawaddy they had to attack the police outpost because many civilians in the area around Gangaw have been suppressed by junta forces.
Another 30 police reinforcements sent to the police outpost were killed during ambushes by civilian resistance fighters, according to a statement from the YDF.
However, The Irrawaddy was unable to independently confirm the police and military casualties.
Myanmar has seen growing and intense violence between junta troops and PDFs after the declaration of a people’s war against the regime by the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) on Sept. 7.
After the announcement, the military regime escalated not only its inspections and arrests but also its violence and raids including burning down villages across the country, especially in Sagaing and Magwe regions and Kayah State.
As of Saturday, 1,080 people had been killed by junta forces during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogations and random shootings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
Almost, 8,050 people including elected government leaders have been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.
www.irrawaddy.com
A total of 1,710 junta soldiers were killed and more than 630 wounded during 1,171 shootouts and assassinations involving ethnic armed groups and civilian resistance fighters over the past three months, according to Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG).
Based on media reports and sources, the NUG’s Ministry of Defense said that more than 431 civilians had also been slain and 184 wounded by junta forces during the incidents.
Since late March, people across Myanmar have taken up available weapons including slingshots, homemade air-guns and firearms to resist the junta in response to an escalation by regime forces of their killing of peaceful anti-coup protesters across the country.
In the past three months, about 180 shootouts between junta forces and ethnic armed groups across the country were reported. During the firefights, 509 junta soldiers were killed and another 214 were injured, while 14 civilian resistance fighters were killed and 17 wounded, said the Ministry of Defense (MoD).
Also, there were 157 defensive actions conducted by the civilian resistance fighters of the People’s Defense Forces against the junta across the country within the three months.
During the defensive actions, 994 junta troops were killed and almost 350 were wounded, while 85 civilian resistance fighters were killed and 34 were injured.
A total of 102 junta soldiers were also killed and 19 wounded during 227 assassinations targeting military regime forces. During the assassinations, 14 civilian fighters were killed and seven were injured. The highest number of assassinations was reported in July, with 87.
Also, there were 280 explosions killing 56 junta soldiers and injuring 47 troops within the three months, said the MoD. In the explosions, 15 people were killed and 35 wounded.
During the period, the junta has escalated its violence against civilians, the MoD said. Junta forces committed 309 acts of violence killing 302 civilians and injuring more than 90 people.
Myanmar has also seen 18 incidents in which junta troops fired on each other, leaving 37 dead and two wounded.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has also been reporting growing and increasingly intense violence between junta forces and PDF members across the country except in Rakhine State following the declaration of a “people’s defensive war” against the junta by the NUG on Sept. 7.
Since the declaration, the Myanmar junta has escalated not only its inspections and arrests, but also its raids and violence including burning down and bombarding villages across the country especially in Kayah State and Magwe and Sagaing regions.
At the same time, the PDFs’ civilian resistance fighters have stepped up their operations targeting junta forces both in rural and urban areas.
As of Monday, Myanmar’s junta forces had slain almost 1,090 people during their crackdowns, raids, arrests, interrogations and arbitrary killings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
A total of 8,100 people including elected government leaders have also been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.
www.irrawaddy.com
Civilian resistance fighters of the Chinland Defense Force seized and burned down a military outpost in Thantlang Township, Chin State on Saturday night.
Around 200 troops from a combined force of the Chinland Defense Force-Thantlang (CDF-T) and the Chin National Association (CNA) started attacking the military outpost in Lungler Village near the Indian border west of Thantlang on Friday.
The civilian resistance forces had to retreat from the firefight that day as they were bombarded by the junta’s jets, according to a statement from the CDF-T.
The CDF-T said they managed to seize the military outpost on Saturday night when 400 civilian resistance fighters attacked the outpost a second time.
During the firefight, 12 junta soldiers were killed and eight civilian resistance fighters were injured.
The CDF-T said they burned down the military outpost after seizing firearms and ammunition from the base camp.
Separately, a combined force from the Yaw-Defense Force (YDF) and Chin Defense Force-Mindat (CDF-M) raided a police outpost in Gangaw Township, Magwe Region early on Sunday morning.
At 2 a.m. on Sunday, five junta police officers were killed when the civilian resistance raided the police outpost in Minywar Village, located to the south of Gangaw. Three civilian resistance fighters were injured in the firefight.
A leader of CDF-Mindat told The Irrawaddy they had to attack the police outpost because many civilians in the area around Gangaw have been suppressed by junta forces.
Another 30 police reinforcements sent to the police outpost were killed during ambushes by civilian resistance fighters, according to a statement from the YDF.
However, The Irrawaddy was unable to independently confirm the police and military casualties.
Myanmar has seen growing and intense violence between junta troops and PDFs after the declaration of a people’s war against the regime by the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) on Sept. 7.
After the announcement, the military regime escalated not only its inspections and arrests but also its violence and raids including burning down villages across the country, especially in Sagaing and Magwe regions and Kayah State.
As of Saturday, 1,080 people had been killed by junta forces during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogations and random shootings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
Almost, 8,050 people including elected government leaders have been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.
Nearly 50 Myanmar Junta Forces Killed in Two Raids by Civilian Fighters in Chin, Magwe
One of the junta outposts, in Chin’s Thantlang Township, was seized and destroyed by local resistance forces.
www.irrawaddy.com
A total of 1,710 junta soldiers were killed and more than 630 wounded during 1,171 shootouts and assassinations involving ethnic armed groups and civilian resistance fighters over the past three months, according to Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG).
Based on media reports and sources, the NUG’s Ministry of Defense said that more than 431 civilians had also been slain and 184 wounded by junta forces during the incidents.
Since late March, people across Myanmar have taken up available weapons including slingshots, homemade air-guns and firearms to resist the junta in response to an escalation by regime forces of their killing of peaceful anti-coup protesters across the country.
In the past three months, about 180 shootouts between junta forces and ethnic armed groups across the country were reported. During the firefights, 509 junta soldiers were killed and another 214 were injured, while 14 civilian resistance fighters were killed and 17 wounded, said the Ministry of Defense (MoD).
Also, there were 157 defensive actions conducted by the civilian resistance fighters of the People’s Defense Forces against the junta across the country within the three months.
During the defensive actions, 994 junta troops were killed and almost 350 were wounded, while 85 civilian resistance fighters were killed and 34 were injured.
A total of 102 junta soldiers were also killed and 19 wounded during 227 assassinations targeting military regime forces. During the assassinations, 14 civilian fighters were killed and seven were injured. The highest number of assassinations was reported in July, with 87.
Also, there were 280 explosions killing 56 junta soldiers and injuring 47 troops within the three months, said the MoD. In the explosions, 15 people were killed and 35 wounded.
During the period, the junta has escalated its violence against civilians, the MoD said. Junta forces committed 309 acts of violence killing 302 civilians and injuring more than 90 people.
Myanmar has also seen 18 incidents in which junta troops fired on each other, leaving 37 dead and two wounded.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has also been reporting growing and increasingly intense violence between junta forces and PDF members across the country except in Rakhine State following the declaration of a “people’s defensive war” against the junta by the NUG on Sept. 7.
Since the declaration, the Myanmar junta has escalated not only its inspections and arrests, but also its raids and violence including burning down and bombarding villages across the country especially in Kayah State and Magwe and Sagaing regions.
At the same time, the PDFs’ civilian resistance fighters have stepped up their operations targeting junta forces both in rural and urban areas.
As of Monday, Myanmar’s junta forces had slain almost 1,090 people during their crackdowns, raids, arrests, interrogations and arbitrary killings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
A total of 8,100 people including elected government leaders have also been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.
Over 1,700 Myanmar Junta Soldiers Killed in Past Three Months, Civilian Govt Says
The troops were killed in clashes with civilian resistance fighters and ethnic armed groups, the National Unity Government said.
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At least 21 junta soldiers were reportedly killed over the last two days after being ambushed by civilian resistance fighters in Chin State and Sagaing and Magwe regions.
On Wednesday evening, at least three regime troops were killed by landmines planted by the People’s Defense Force-Kalay (PDF-K) in Kale Township, Sagaing Region, according to the PDF-K.
A military convoy using some civilian vehicles triggered the landmines near the Government Technology University in Kale.
The Yaw-People’s Defense Force (Y-PDF) claims to have killed four junta troops on Wednesday morning in an ambush near the border of Kale Township and Gangaw Township in Magwe Region.
Two regime soldiers were also wounded in the attack. The Y-PDF said that two of the dead soldiers were members of a Pyu-Saw-Htee group, a militia trained and armed by the military regime.
Junta troops have been raiding villages along the Gangaw-Kale Highway over the past few weeks in their operations against civilian resistance forces. Over 20 civilians, including several teenagers, were slain and many homes torched by the regime troops. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their villages in Gangaw Township.
On Wednesday morning, another intense firefight occurred in the east of Kanpetlet Township, Chin State when junta troops and ethnic Chin resistance fighters clashed.
During the shootout, four junta soldiers were killed and many others injured, according to the Chinland Defense Force-Kanpetlet (CDF-K).
After the firefight, angry junta soldiers entered Kanpetlet Town and opened fire randomly with heavy weapons and explosives, said CDF-K.
CDF-K has warned locals to be on the alert as more fighting is expected in the township.
On Tuesday morning, 10 junta soldiers were killed and many were injured during an ambush by the CDF-K in the east of Kanpetlet Township. After the clash, junta forces opened fire randomly with artillery, said CDF-K.
There has been an uptick in clashes between junta forces and civilian resistance fighters since last week, when the parallel National Unity Government declared a peoples’ defensive war against the military regime.
As of Wednesday, over 1,090 people have been killed by junta forces during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogation and random shootings, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which is compiling lists of deaths and arrests since the February 1 coup.
Another 8,184 people, including elected government leaders, have been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.
www.irrawaddy.com
Fighting has been reported between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and junta troops in Tanai Township, Kachin State in northern Myanmar.
The ethnic armed group and the Myanmar military have been clashing on the strategic Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road since September 7, after regime soldiers attempted to retake control of Tarong Village, which lies along the road, said KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu.
“The clashes happened because the Tanai Regional Operations Command of the Myanmar military advanced towards us. There have been three clashes on the road. If they continue to advance towards our troops, there will be further fighting,” he added.
The Irrawaddy was unable to obtain a comment from the military regime about the fighting.
Junta troops were previously stationed in Tarong Village, withdrawing from there after the February coup, according to locals. KIA troops arrived later and stayed in the village to levy taxes on the cargo trucks and passenger buses that travel the Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road, said residents.
Hundreds of junta troops have since marched from Tanai towards Tarong Village, reported locals. On September 7, the KIA used landmines to ambush an advancing military column.
Clashes continued over the next two days, before the KIA troops withdrew on September 10. Junta soldiers have since retaken control of Tarong Village.
“The military occupied Tarong on September 10. Four battalions entered the village. All of them are now staying at the village monastery because their original base had already been torched by the KIA,” said a local resident.
Junta troops summoned the village elders and faith leaders and threatened to raze the village if the KIA attacked them. The faith leaders have since written to the KIA, asking the armed group not to attack the village.
Regime troops are preparing to rebuild their bases in Tarong Village and near the Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road, said locals. Some residents of Tarong fled to Tanai Town after junta troops arrived in the village.
“They [junta troops] entered the village at night. A villager was outside on a bridge without knowing they had arrived. He was beaten to death. The same night, some villagers fled by car to Tanai and junta troops opened fire on the car. A woman passenger was injured when a bullet shattered one of the car windows,” said a villager.
Two hunters from Lajarbum village on the Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road were also detained and beaten, with junta soldiers accusing them of being KIA fighters after they were stopped with their traditional hunting rifles.
Locals were told by the junta troops that they had come to the village to stop the KIA from taxing vehicles in the area.
The Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road links Kachin State’s capital, Myitkyina, and Nanyun and Pansaung in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in Sagaing Region. It is the main route for transporting food and fuel supplies. Cargo trucks are still travelling on the road as the clashes are not serious, said locals.
KIA fighters have also clashed with junta troops in Waingmaw, Injangyang, Hpakant, Momauk, Shwegu, Bhamo and Putao townships in Kachin State.
There has been frequent fighting between the KIA and the Myanmar military since a bilateral ceasefire broke down in 2011. Clashes stopped for two years before the February 1 coup.
Since March 11, the KIA has attacked regime troops and police stations in Kachin and northern Shan State, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces. The military regime has responded by bringing in thousands of reinforcements, moving some close to the KIA headquarters in Laiza, Kachin State, while also targeting the KIA and innocent civilians with air and artillery strikes.
www.irrawaddy.com
On Wednesday evening, at least three regime troops were killed by landmines planted by the People’s Defense Force-Kalay (PDF-K) in Kale Township, Sagaing Region, according to the PDF-K.
A military convoy using some civilian vehicles triggered the landmines near the Government Technology University in Kale.
The Yaw-People’s Defense Force (Y-PDF) claims to have killed four junta troops on Wednesday morning in an ambush near the border of Kale Township and Gangaw Township in Magwe Region.
Two regime soldiers were also wounded in the attack. The Y-PDF said that two of the dead soldiers were members of a Pyu-Saw-Htee group, a militia trained and armed by the military regime.
Junta troops have been raiding villages along the Gangaw-Kale Highway over the past few weeks in their operations against civilian resistance forces. Over 20 civilians, including several teenagers, were slain and many homes torched by the regime troops. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their villages in Gangaw Township.
On Wednesday morning, another intense firefight occurred in the east of Kanpetlet Township, Chin State when junta troops and ethnic Chin resistance fighters clashed.
During the shootout, four junta soldiers were killed and many others injured, according to the Chinland Defense Force-Kanpetlet (CDF-K).
After the firefight, angry junta soldiers entered Kanpetlet Town and opened fire randomly with heavy weapons and explosives, said CDF-K.
CDF-K has warned locals to be on the alert as more fighting is expected in the township.
On Tuesday morning, 10 junta soldiers were killed and many were injured during an ambush by the CDF-K in the east of Kanpetlet Township. After the clash, junta forces opened fire randomly with artillery, said CDF-K.
There has been an uptick in clashes between junta forces and civilian resistance fighters since last week, when the parallel National Unity Government declared a peoples’ defensive war against the military regime.
As of Wednesday, over 1,090 people have been killed by junta forces during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogation and random shootings, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which is compiling lists of deaths and arrests since the February 1 coup.
Another 8,184 people, including elected government leaders, have been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.
Over 20 Myanmar Military Soldiers Killed in Clashes
Civilian fighters ambush junta troops in Chin State, Sagaing and Magwe regions as armed resistance to the junta intensifies.
www.irrawaddy.com
Fighting has been reported between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and junta troops in Tanai Township, Kachin State in northern Myanmar.
The ethnic armed group and the Myanmar military have been clashing on the strategic Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road since September 7, after regime soldiers attempted to retake control of Tarong Village, which lies along the road, said KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu.
“The clashes happened because the Tanai Regional Operations Command of the Myanmar military advanced towards us. There have been three clashes on the road. If they continue to advance towards our troops, there will be further fighting,” he added.
The Irrawaddy was unable to obtain a comment from the military regime about the fighting.
Junta troops were previously stationed in Tarong Village, withdrawing from there after the February coup, according to locals. KIA troops arrived later and stayed in the village to levy taxes on the cargo trucks and passenger buses that travel the Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road, said residents.
Hundreds of junta troops have since marched from Tanai towards Tarong Village, reported locals. On September 7, the KIA used landmines to ambush an advancing military column.
Clashes continued over the next two days, before the KIA troops withdrew on September 10. Junta soldiers have since retaken control of Tarong Village.
“The military occupied Tarong on September 10. Four battalions entered the village. All of them are now staying at the village monastery because their original base had already been torched by the KIA,” said a local resident.
Junta troops summoned the village elders and faith leaders and threatened to raze the village if the KIA attacked them. The faith leaders have since written to the KIA, asking the armed group not to attack the village.
Regime troops are preparing to rebuild their bases in Tarong Village and near the Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road, said locals. Some residents of Tarong fled to Tanai Town after junta troops arrived in the village.
“They [junta troops] entered the village at night. A villager was outside on a bridge without knowing they had arrived. He was beaten to death. The same night, some villagers fled by car to Tanai and junta troops opened fire on the car. A woman passenger was injured when a bullet shattered one of the car windows,” said a villager.
Two hunters from Lajarbum village on the Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road were also detained and beaten, with junta soldiers accusing them of being KIA fighters after they were stopped with their traditional hunting rifles.
Locals were told by the junta troops that they had come to the village to stop the KIA from taxing vehicles in the area.
The Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road links Kachin State’s capital, Myitkyina, and Nanyun and Pansaung in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in Sagaing Region. It is the main route for transporting food and fuel supplies. Cargo trucks are still travelling on the road as the clashes are not serious, said locals.
KIA fighters have also clashed with junta troops in Waingmaw, Injangyang, Hpakant, Momauk, Shwegu, Bhamo and Putao townships in Kachin State.
There has been frequent fighting between the KIA and the Myanmar military since a bilateral ceasefire broke down in 2011. Clashes stopped for two years before the February 1 coup.
Since March 11, the KIA has attacked regime troops and police stations in Kachin and northern Shan State, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces. The military regime has responded by bringing in thousands of reinforcements, moving some close to the KIA headquarters in Laiza, Kachin State, while also targeting the KIA and innocent civilians with air and artillery strikes.
Myanmar Military Battles Ethnic Armed Group in Kachin State
Junta troops and fighters from the Kachin Independence Army are clashing over control of a strategic road in northern Myanmar.
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Myanmar’s military fired artillery on Wednesday night near Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State, for no reason, said KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu.
“We heard loud firing. There were about five rounds,” a resident of Laiza told The Irrawaddy. The firing took place around 10pm, he added.
Col. Naw Bu said that the junta launched the artillery strike even though there were no KIA attacks on regime troops on Wednesday night. Some of the shells landed near a COVID-19 quarantine center in Mai Sak Pa village, he added.
“Why did they fire when they know it is a civilian residential area? There is no KIA outpost there. It is a village,” said Col. Naw Bu.
Myanmar’s military has expanded its presence and weaponry in every township across Kachin State, including near Laiza, said the KIA.
On August 3, junta soldiers fired at least six artillery shells near Mai Sak Pa village for no reason. Some rounds landed near the village’s COVID-19 center, throwing patients into a panic.
Military tensions are also running high in Tanai Township in Kachin, with junta troops taking control of Tarong Village on the strategic Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road after days of fighting.
There have been frequent clashes between the KIA and the Myanmar military since a bilateral ceasefire broke down in 2011, although fighting stopped for two years before the February 1 coup.
Since March 11, the KIA has attacked regime troops and police stations in Kachin and northern Shan State, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces. The military regime has responded by bringing in thousands of reinforcements, while also targeting the KIA and innocent civilians with air and artillery strikes.
www.irrawaddy.com
At least 26 junta soldiers were reportedly killed in ambushes by People’s Defense Force units in Magwe and Sagaing regions and Chin and Kayah states on Thursday and early Friday.
Myanmar has seen increasingly intense violence between junta forces and People’s Defense Force units across the country since the declaration of a People’s Defensive War by the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) on Sept. 7.
At 5 a.m. on Friday, a combined force of civilian resistance fighters from Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin State attacked a police station located at Mile 9 (Km 14.5) of the Tedim-Kale Highway in Chin State’s Tedim Township, according to a statement issued by the Chinland Defense Force-Kalay, Kabaw, Gangaw (CDF-KKG), one of the participating groups.
A video shows the police station being attacked by the civilian resistance fighters.
During the raid, five policemen were killed, the group said. The CDF-KKG also said the raid was their final “warning attack” on the police station, and urged all police personnel to join the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
Junta soldiers had arrived at the police station early in the morning and started inspecting all vehicles traveling on the Tedim-Kale Highway, a local resident told The Irrawaddy.
On Thursday evening, there were at least 10 military casualties in Saw Township, Magwe Region, when the People’s Defense Force-Saw (PDF-S) used landmines to ambush 100 junta troops traveling on the Saw-Kangyi Highway.
The PDF-S said its members managed to retreat from the area without any casualties.
On the same day, the Chinland Defense Force-Kanpetlet (CDF-K) also ambushed military reinforcements near the border between Chin State and Magwe Region. The junta troops were traveling to Kyindwe town in Chin State from Magwe Region.
As a result of the ambush, the military reinforcements halted their journey after seeing the deaths of seven junta soldiers and many injured, CDF-K said.
Around 14 junta soldiers were also killed during ambushes by the CDF-K in Kanpetlet Township on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, civilian fighters of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force-KNDF and troops from the Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), conducted a combined attack on junta troops deployed on a hill near Mile 6 Village in Kayah State’s Demoso Township.
During the firefight, six junta soldiers were killed by the Karenni armed forces.
On Thursday evening, three military vehicles reportedly triggered landmines planted by a local People’s Defense Force unit in Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township. However, military casualties remain unknown.
Since the declaration of the People’s Defensive War by the NUG, the military regime has escalated not only its inspections and arrests, but also its raids and use of violence including torturing detainees and burning down villages across the country, especially in Sagaing and Magawe regions and Kayah State, which are strongholds of civilian armed resistance.
Meanwhile, civilian resistance forces across the country have stepped up their operations including ambushes, assassinations targeting junta forces and destruction of junta-owned Mytel’s telecom masts.
After the NUG’s announcement on Sept. 7, within a week, civilian resistance forces conducted a total of 139 attacks including ambushes, bombings and assassinations targeting junta forces across the country, while the junta committed 31 acts of violence against the people, according to a statement from the NUG’s Ministry of Defense.
Most of the defensive attacks by PDFs were reported in Sagaing, Yangon, Mandalay and Magwe regions.
In the attacks, 192 junta forces were killed and 68 wounded, the NUG said.
As of Thursday, more than 1,100 people had been slain by the junta during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogations and random shootings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
Another 8,223 people including elected government leaders have been arrested by the junta or face arrest warrants.
www.irrawaddy.com
A warehouse of the military-backed Myanmar Beer was bombed on Thursday night in Monywa, Sagaing Region. The Monywa office of Mytel, the military-owned telecom operator, was bombed the previous day.
The explosions come as civilian resistance fighters step up their attacks on the military regime and its assets, following the parallel National Unity Government’s September 7 declaration of a nationwide defensive war against the junta.
Civilian resistance forces in Sagaing Region said that they planted the bomb in a Myanmar Beer warehouse in the Monywa Industrial Zone as a warning. Myanmar Beer has been widely-boycotted by the public since the junta’s February 1 coup. The company operates seven warehouses nationwide.
No one was injured in the explosion.
On Wednesday morning, the same resistance group also bombed the Monywa office of Mytel, the military-owned telecom operator. One of two Mytel telecom masts in Monywa was also reportedly burned down on Tuesday.
Over 80 Mytel telecom masts had been destroyed across the country by September 9.
Myanmar people have been boycotting military-linked products and services since the junta’s coup and subsequent lethal crackdowns on peaceful anti-regime protesters.
The boycott is especially targeting Mytel, the country’s fourth-largest telecom operator, and the formerly popular drinks, Myanmar Beer and Black Shield. Cigarette brands Red Ruby and Premium Gold are also being boycotted. Other brands on the boycott list include Gandamar Wholesale, Ruby Mart and Myawaddy Petrol.
www.irrawaddy.com
“We heard loud firing. There were about five rounds,” a resident of Laiza told The Irrawaddy. The firing took place around 10pm, he added.
Col. Naw Bu said that the junta launched the artillery strike even though there were no KIA attacks on regime troops on Wednesday night. Some of the shells landed near a COVID-19 quarantine center in Mai Sak Pa village, he added.
“Why did they fire when they know it is a civilian residential area? There is no KIA outpost there. It is a village,” said Col. Naw Bu.
Myanmar’s military has expanded its presence and weaponry in every township across Kachin State, including near Laiza, said the KIA.
On August 3, junta soldiers fired at least six artillery shells near Mai Sak Pa village for no reason. Some rounds landed near the village’s COVID-19 center, throwing patients into a panic.
Military tensions are also running high in Tanai Township in Kachin, with junta troops taking control of Tarong Village on the strategic Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road after days of fighting.
There have been frequent clashes between the KIA and the Myanmar military since a bilateral ceasefire broke down in 2011, although fighting stopped for two years before the February 1 coup.
Since March 11, the KIA has attacked regime troops and police stations in Kachin and northern Shan State, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces. The military regime has responded by bringing in thousands of reinforcements, while also targeting the KIA and innocent civilians with air and artillery strikes.
Myanmar Military Launches Artillery Strike Near Kachin Armed Group’s HQ
The junta is expanding its military presence in Kachin State, including close to the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army in Laiza.
www.irrawaddy.com
At least 26 junta soldiers were reportedly killed in ambushes by People’s Defense Force units in Magwe and Sagaing regions and Chin and Kayah states on Thursday and early Friday.
Myanmar has seen increasingly intense violence between junta forces and People’s Defense Force units across the country since the declaration of a People’s Defensive War by the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) on Sept. 7.
At 5 a.m. on Friday, a combined force of civilian resistance fighters from Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin State attacked a police station located at Mile 9 (Km 14.5) of the Tedim-Kale Highway in Chin State’s Tedim Township, according to a statement issued by the Chinland Defense Force-Kalay, Kabaw, Gangaw (CDF-KKG), one of the participating groups.
A video shows the police station being attacked by the civilian resistance fighters.
During the raid, five policemen were killed, the group said. The CDF-KKG also said the raid was their final “warning attack” on the police station, and urged all police personnel to join the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
Junta soldiers had arrived at the police station early in the morning and started inspecting all vehicles traveling on the Tedim-Kale Highway, a local resident told The Irrawaddy.
On Thursday evening, there were at least 10 military casualties in Saw Township, Magwe Region, when the People’s Defense Force-Saw (PDF-S) used landmines to ambush 100 junta troops traveling on the Saw-Kangyi Highway.
The PDF-S said its members managed to retreat from the area without any casualties.
On the same day, the Chinland Defense Force-Kanpetlet (CDF-K) also ambushed military reinforcements near the border between Chin State and Magwe Region. The junta troops were traveling to Kyindwe town in Chin State from Magwe Region.
As a result of the ambush, the military reinforcements halted their journey after seeing the deaths of seven junta soldiers and many injured, CDF-K said.
Around 14 junta soldiers were also killed during ambushes by the CDF-K in Kanpetlet Township on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, civilian fighters of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force-KNDF and troops from the Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), conducted a combined attack on junta troops deployed on a hill near Mile 6 Village in Kayah State’s Demoso Township.
During the firefight, six junta soldiers were killed by the Karenni armed forces.
On Thursday evening, three military vehicles reportedly triggered landmines planted by a local People’s Defense Force unit in Sagaing Region’s Kanbalu Township. However, military casualties remain unknown.
Since the declaration of the People’s Defensive War by the NUG, the military regime has escalated not only its inspections and arrests, but also its raids and use of violence including torturing detainees and burning down villages across the country, especially in Sagaing and Magawe regions and Kayah State, which are strongholds of civilian armed resistance.
Meanwhile, civilian resistance forces across the country have stepped up their operations including ambushes, assassinations targeting junta forces and destruction of junta-owned Mytel’s telecom masts.
After the NUG’s announcement on Sept. 7, within a week, civilian resistance forces conducted a total of 139 attacks including ambushes, bombings and assassinations targeting junta forces across the country, while the junta committed 31 acts of violence against the people, according to a statement from the NUG’s Ministry of Defense.
Most of the defensive attacks by PDFs were reported in Sagaing, Yangon, Mandalay and Magwe regions.
In the attacks, 192 junta forces were killed and 68 wounded, the NUG said.
As of Thursday, more than 1,100 people had been slain by the junta during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogations and random shootings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.
Another 8,223 people including elected government leaders have been arrested by the junta or face arrest warrants.
Dozens of Junta Troops Killed in Attacks by Civilian PDF Units
People’s Defense Force teams claim to have killed at least 26 regime personnel in a series of attacks in four states and regions since Thursday as fighting intensifies.
www.irrawaddy.com
A warehouse of the military-backed Myanmar Beer was bombed on Thursday night in Monywa, Sagaing Region. The Monywa office of Mytel, the military-owned telecom operator, was bombed the previous day.
The explosions come as civilian resistance fighters step up their attacks on the military regime and its assets, following the parallel National Unity Government’s September 7 declaration of a nationwide defensive war against the junta.
Civilian resistance forces in Sagaing Region said that they planted the bomb in a Myanmar Beer warehouse in the Monywa Industrial Zone as a warning. Myanmar Beer has been widely-boycotted by the public since the junta’s February 1 coup. The company operates seven warehouses nationwide.
No one was injured in the explosion.
On Wednesday morning, the same resistance group also bombed the Monywa office of Mytel, the military-owned telecom operator. One of two Mytel telecom masts in Monywa was also reportedly burned down on Tuesday.
Over 80 Mytel telecom masts had been destroyed across the country by September 9.
Myanmar people have been boycotting military-linked products and services since the junta’s coup and subsequent lethal crackdowns on peaceful anti-regime protesters.
The boycott is especially targeting Mytel, the country’s fourth-largest telecom operator, and the formerly popular drinks, Myanmar Beer and Black Shield. Cigarette brands Red Ruby and Premium Gold are also being boycotted. Other brands on the boycott list include Gandamar Wholesale, Ruby Mart and Myawaddy Petrol.
Military-Backed Myanmar Beer Warehouse Bombed in Monywa
Civilian resistance fighters are stepping up their attacks on the military regime and its assets following the National Unity Government’s declaration of war.
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Resistance fighters in Chin State teamed up with rebels from the Chin National Army (CNA) last week to overrun a military outpost near Myanmar’s border with India, killing 12 junta soldiers in the attack.
About 200 fighters from the CNA and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), which was formed by civilians who took up arms after the February coup, raided the outpost in Lungler village, Thantlang Township, on Friday, a CDF spokesperson said.
But the military sent a fighter jet to bombard the newly occupied base, forcing the fighters to retreat. The coalition then gathered more fighters and attacked the base again the following evening with a force of around 400.
“We decided to attack the base again at night so that there wouldn’t be an air raid,” the spokesperson said. The battle lasted for around 90 minutes, he added. “We managed to occupy the base by 10pm.”
The coalition suffered eight injuries but no deaths, according to the spokesperson, who added that the fighters seized weapons and ammunition from the outpost before burning it down.
The attack came after the CDF ambushed junta soldiers who were inspecting houses and harassing civilians in Thantlang on Thursday. The CDF said it killed two junta soldiers in that attack.
It is unclear how many soldiers were stationed at the Lungler base. The CDF spokesperson said that five troops deserted the post and fled to India two weeks before the attack, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this.
On Friday, junta soldiers fired shells into Lungler village, which has about 100 houses, said the spokesperson. The villagers had already fled across the border to Mizoram two days earlier following a separate clash in the area, he added.
A military fighter jet was seen flying over the village on Sunday, he said.
Last week the underground National Unity Government declared a “resistance war” against the junta and urged people across the country to support the fight in any way they could.
Two members of a coalition force of Karenni resistance fighters were killed early Tuesday morning after coming under heavy artillery fire while attacking a military outpost in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Hpruso Township.
The combined force of fighters from the Karenni National Defence Force (KNDF) and the Karenni Army (KA) retreated after Si Moe Nel (also known as Aung Naing) and Peter John, both from KNDF Battalion 1, were killed during the assault on the outpost in the village of Kadalar.
A troop member who was involved in the battle told Myanmar Now that the KNDF and the KA—the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party—launched the attack at around 3am.
Fighting continued for five hours, until the Karenni fighters were forced to retreat because they had been outgunned, he said.
“We failed to occupy the outpost. They started shelling us from their Artillery Battalion 102. We still don’t know the number of casualties on the military council’s side,” he added.
He also claimed that there were many soldiers stationed at the outpost, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this information.
Tuesday’s clash marks the first time since the KNDF and the KA joined forces in mid-July that the Karenni resistance forces have acknowledged the loss of any of their own troops. The only fatalities reported during previous clashes were on the side of the regime’s forces.
Local armed resistance groups started clashing with the military in Demoso Township on May 21. On June 15, after thousands of local civilians were displaced, the two sides entered into a ceasefire agreement at the request of religious leaders.
The ceasefire lasted about a month, until the KNDF joined the KA as it engaged regime forces near the village of Nan Phe in Bawlakhe Township on July 16.
Local resistance groups claim they have killed hundreds of junta troops in recent months. They also accuse the military of killing at least 90 civilians.
More than 100,000 civilians in Karenni State and Pekhon Township in southern Shan State remain displaced due to the conflict.
The Myanmar military has stepped up its operations in Sagaing Region, with the junta reportedly deploying extra forces following escalating clashes in Sagaing between regime troops and civilian resistance fighters. Regime reinforcements are reportedly arriving not only by road but by river and air, too, along with heavy weapons.
Observers say that the junta may be planning attacks in Mingin, Kani, Yinmarbin, Pale and Myaung townships along the western banks of the Chindwin River, where armed resistance is especially strong.
Locals reported seeing military vessels carrying hundreds of junta soldiers sailing up and down the Chindwin River since September 12. The vessels also reportedly carried weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles, which have been deployed in Kani Township.
Regime reinforcements have also arrived by road and by helicopter in Kani, Monywa and Mingin.
“There have been an excessive number of junta forces and weapons arriving, many of them in Mingin and Kani townships,” a member of the Mingin People’s Defense Force (PDF) told The Irrawaddy.
Clashes are also intensifying in upper Magwe Region and Chin State, which both neighbor Sagaing. Junta forces have committed mass killings, as well as torching and looting villages in Sagaing.
Armed resistance in those areas has grown from individual villages rising up to clusters of villages rebelling together, said a military analyst who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, thousands of locals have been forced from their homes in Taze, Tabayin and Myaung townships along the eastern banks of the Chindwin River in Sagaing.
The commander of the Pale Township PDF said, “[Resistance fighters] have been fiercely attacking the regime in Mingin, Pale, Yinmarbin and Kani, and lately in Myaung and Yaw. They [the junta] will put pressure on those areas where the resistance is strong. But we will continue to fight them with whatever weapons we have”.
Since August, the military regime has been conducting clearance operations in Sagaing Region, raiding one village after another. Internet services have been cut off in parts of Sagaing since last week, with some places having access only to 2G mobile internet.
Local PDF’s say that the regime has brought in between 500 and 600 troops from Monywa and Kale townships, and most of them are currently deployed in Kani and Yinmarbin.
Over 100 junta reinforcements have also arrived in Mingin, and there are also large numbers of of Pyu Saw Htee, a militia group trained and armed by the junta, in Mingin, said the township PDF. Many locals have fled their homes following the arrival of the junta reinforcements.
Kani Township PDF has warned civilians to evacuate to safe areas following the increase in regime troop deployments.
www.irrawaddy.com
Long before the junta’s February 1 coup, the Rohingya crisis was making headlines in the international media. Today, the issue is still grabbing attention worldwide with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, the stateless Muslim minority from Rakhine State in western Myanmar, in refugee camps in Bangladesh waiting to be repatriated to Myanmar.
Myanmar is facing a lawsuit for the alleged genocide of the Rohingya at the International Court of Justice. To make matters worse, old and new Muslim armed groups are active at the border with Bangladesh again, including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the armed group led by Abdullah Kane that operates like a criminal gang.
The RSO was established in the early 1980s and has frequently attacked security outposts in Maungdaw Township on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, according to historical records.
In the 1990s, Myanmar’s military carried out a large-scale counter offensive against the RSO and the armed group sank into obscurity. However, since the coup, the RSO has started to revive.
In June, a man claiming to be Major Kyaw Myint Tun from the RSO, clad in uniform and with a holstered pistol, shared a video on social media in which he said in Burmese that the armed group would fight the regime for the rights of Rohingya people. The video also shows RSO fighters undergoing military training.
The RSO’s resurgence has led to friction with the ARSA, which came into the spotlight following its attacks on border guard outposts in Maungdaw in 2016 and 2017. The ARSA said it was fighting for the rights of persecuted Rohingya people, but its insurgent acts and killings of Hindus have brought its motives into question.
Muslim villagers in Rakhine State told The Irrawaddy that people who supported the ARSA have been attacked by the RSO, while the ARSA has detained and beaten those it suspects of having ties to the RSO.
On Sept. 2, a village administrator in Pan Taw Pyin Village in Maungdaw was shot dead in what appeared to be an armed robbery. Two men at the administrator’s house were stabbed and seriously wounded.
Villagers said that there is a checkpoint run by border guard police near the village, and that junta soldiers were also staying at the village school that day.
The fact that the military regime is still unable to identify the perpetrators of the attack highlights the lack of security in Maungdaw. On September 9, the Rohingya Nationalist Organization (RNO), a Muslim group based in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, said that the murder and armed robbery was committed by the armed group led by Abdullah Kane.
The group was also responsible for kidnapping and robbing the Padin Village administrator in August, as well as a furniture business owner and a former village administrator in May, said the RNO, which also accused the gang of other similar crimes.
In its statement, the RNO, also urged the Arakan Army (AA) to crush Abdullah Kane’s gang. Abdullah Kane, 55, was born in a village in southern Maungdaw, and is believed to have hideouts in Muslim villages and the Mayu Mountains in Rakhine.
A man who claims to be Abdullah Kane said in a video recently circulated on social media that he grew up being oppressed by the party cadres of his village during the rule of the Burma Socialist Programme Party led by the late dictator Ne Win. He added that he escaped from prison after he was unfairly arrested by village authorities and military intelligence during the previous junta’s rule. He warned that he would give ‘lessons’ to any Muslim administrators and businessmen who cooperate with the authorities.
It is an interesting fact that Abdullah Kane is still at large, despite the activities of the junta-controlled border guard force in Rakhine and the AA, which has been able to extend its influence over most of northern Rakhine State since the coup. His gang has also been able to operate without being confronted by either the ARSA or the RSO.
Locals said that Abdullah Kane was twice captured by authorities but then released, suggesting that he may have ties with the border guard police in Rakhine. Some locals have said that some of the murders and robberies his group is accused of were carried out by drug gangs in Maungdaw, but that Abdullah Kane has got the blame because of his previous activities.
There have been attempts by the AA to apprehend Abdullah Kane, but they appear not to have been serious efforts because Abdullah Kane has targeted only his fellow Muslims and has not touched ethnic Rakhine villages, said a Rakhine source who is close to the AA.
After agreeing an unofficial ceasefire with the Myanmar military last November, the AA has established its authority in Rakhine, implementing its own administrative and judicial systems. Muslim villagers have been included in the AA’s administrative mechanism, said observers.
There are also Muslim militia groups, tasked with law enforcement, in parts of northern Rakhine that have been trained and armed by the AA. But there is no such group in Maungdaw Township, where border guard police stations are concentrated in northern Rakhine.
When the AA and Myanmar military were clashing, the fighting took place mostly in Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships, and barely touched Maungdaw.
Muslim armed groups have been infiltrating into Maungdaw from Bangladesh, according to observers, where they are out of the reach of both Myanmar’s border guard forces and the AA.
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About 200 fighters from the CNA and the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), which was formed by civilians who took up arms after the February coup, raided the outpost in Lungler village, Thantlang Township, on Friday, a CDF spokesperson said.
But the military sent a fighter jet to bombard the newly occupied base, forcing the fighters to retreat. The coalition then gathered more fighters and attacked the base again the following evening with a force of around 400.
“We decided to attack the base again at night so that there wouldn’t be an air raid,” the spokesperson said. The battle lasted for around 90 minutes, he added. “We managed to occupy the base by 10pm.”
The coalition suffered eight injuries but no deaths, according to the spokesperson, who added that the fighters seized weapons and ammunition from the outpost before burning it down.
The attack came after the CDF ambushed junta soldiers who were inspecting houses and harassing civilians in Thantlang on Thursday. The CDF said it killed two junta soldiers in that attack.
It is unclear how many soldiers were stationed at the Lungler base. The CDF spokesperson said that five troops deserted the post and fled to India two weeks before the attack, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this.
On Friday, junta soldiers fired shells into Lungler village, which has about 100 houses, said the spokesperson. The villagers had already fled across the border to Mizoram two days earlier following a separate clash in the area, he added.
A military fighter jet was seen flying over the village on Sunday, he said.
Last week the underground National Unity Government declared a “resistance war” against the junta and urged people across the country to support the fight in any way they could.
Two members of a coalition force of Karenni resistance fighters were killed early Tuesday morning after coming under heavy artillery fire while attacking a military outpost in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Hpruso Township.
The combined force of fighters from the Karenni National Defence Force (KNDF) and the Karenni Army (KA) retreated after Si Moe Nel (also known as Aung Naing) and Peter John, both from KNDF Battalion 1, were killed during the assault on the outpost in the village of Kadalar.
A troop member who was involved in the battle told Myanmar Now that the KNDF and the KA—the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party—launched the attack at around 3am.
Fighting continued for five hours, until the Karenni fighters were forced to retreat because they had been outgunned, he said.
“We failed to occupy the outpost. They started shelling us from their Artillery Battalion 102. We still don’t know the number of casualties on the military council’s side,” he added.
He also claimed that there were many soldiers stationed at the outpost, but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this information.
Tuesday’s clash marks the first time since the KNDF and the KA joined forces in mid-July that the Karenni resistance forces have acknowledged the loss of any of their own troops. The only fatalities reported during previous clashes were on the side of the regime’s forces.
Local armed resistance groups started clashing with the military in Demoso Township on May 21. On June 15, after thousands of local civilians were displaced, the two sides entered into a ceasefire agreement at the request of religious leaders.
The ceasefire lasted about a month, until the KNDF joined the KA as it engaged regime forces near the village of Nan Phe in Bawlakhe Township on July 16.
Local resistance groups claim they have killed hundreds of junta troops in recent months. They also accuse the military of killing at least 90 civilians.
More than 100,000 civilians in Karenni State and Pekhon Township in southern Shan State remain displaced due to the conflict.
The Myanmar military has stepped up its operations in Sagaing Region, with the junta reportedly deploying extra forces following escalating clashes in Sagaing between regime troops and civilian resistance fighters. Regime reinforcements are reportedly arriving not only by road but by river and air, too, along with heavy weapons.
Observers say that the junta may be planning attacks in Mingin, Kani, Yinmarbin, Pale and Myaung townships along the western banks of the Chindwin River, where armed resistance is especially strong.
Locals reported seeing military vessels carrying hundreds of junta soldiers sailing up and down the Chindwin River since September 12. The vessels also reportedly carried weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles, which have been deployed in Kani Township.
Regime reinforcements have also arrived by road and by helicopter in Kani, Monywa and Mingin.
“There have been an excessive number of junta forces and weapons arriving, many of them in Mingin and Kani townships,” a member of the Mingin People’s Defense Force (PDF) told The Irrawaddy.
Clashes are also intensifying in upper Magwe Region and Chin State, which both neighbor Sagaing. Junta forces have committed mass killings, as well as torching and looting villages in Sagaing.
Armed resistance in those areas has grown from individual villages rising up to clusters of villages rebelling together, said a military analyst who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, thousands of locals have been forced from their homes in Taze, Tabayin and Myaung townships along the eastern banks of the Chindwin River in Sagaing.
The commander of the Pale Township PDF said, “[Resistance fighters] have been fiercely attacking the regime in Mingin, Pale, Yinmarbin and Kani, and lately in Myaung and Yaw. They [the junta] will put pressure on those areas where the resistance is strong. But we will continue to fight them with whatever weapons we have”.
Since August, the military regime has been conducting clearance operations in Sagaing Region, raiding one village after another. Internet services have been cut off in parts of Sagaing since last week, with some places having access only to 2G mobile internet.
Local PDF’s say that the regime has brought in between 500 and 600 troops from Monywa and Kale townships, and most of them are currently deployed in Kani and Yinmarbin.
Over 100 junta reinforcements have also arrived in Mingin, and there are also large numbers of of Pyu Saw Htee, a militia group trained and armed by the junta, in Mingin, said the township PDF. Many locals have fled their homes following the arrival of the junta reinforcements.
Kani Township PDF has warned civilians to evacuate to safe areas following the increase in regime troop deployments.
Regime’s Military Reinforcements Arrive in Upper Myanmar as Clashes Escalate
Regime troops deploying by land, river and air as civilian resistance fighters step up attacks along the banks of the Chindwin River.
www.irrawaddy.com
Long before the junta’s February 1 coup, the Rohingya crisis was making headlines in the international media. Today, the issue is still grabbing attention worldwide with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, the stateless Muslim minority from Rakhine State in western Myanmar, in refugee camps in Bangladesh waiting to be repatriated to Myanmar.
Myanmar is facing a lawsuit for the alleged genocide of the Rohingya at the International Court of Justice. To make matters worse, old and new Muslim armed groups are active at the border with Bangladesh again, including the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the armed group led by Abdullah Kane that operates like a criminal gang.
The RSO was established in the early 1980s and has frequently attacked security outposts in Maungdaw Township on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, according to historical records.
In the 1990s, Myanmar’s military carried out a large-scale counter offensive against the RSO and the armed group sank into obscurity. However, since the coup, the RSO has started to revive.
In June, a man claiming to be Major Kyaw Myint Tun from the RSO, clad in uniform and with a holstered pistol, shared a video on social media in which he said in Burmese that the armed group would fight the regime for the rights of Rohingya people. The video also shows RSO fighters undergoing military training.
The RSO’s resurgence has led to friction with the ARSA, which came into the spotlight following its attacks on border guard outposts in Maungdaw in 2016 and 2017. The ARSA said it was fighting for the rights of persecuted Rohingya people, but its insurgent acts and killings of Hindus have brought its motives into question.
Muslim villagers in Rakhine State told The Irrawaddy that people who supported the ARSA have been attacked by the RSO, while the ARSA has detained and beaten those it suspects of having ties to the RSO.
On Sept. 2, a village administrator in Pan Taw Pyin Village in Maungdaw was shot dead in what appeared to be an armed robbery. Two men at the administrator’s house were stabbed and seriously wounded.
Villagers said that there is a checkpoint run by border guard police near the village, and that junta soldiers were also staying at the village school that day.
The fact that the military regime is still unable to identify the perpetrators of the attack highlights the lack of security in Maungdaw. On September 9, the Rohingya Nationalist Organization (RNO), a Muslim group based in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, said that the murder and armed robbery was committed by the armed group led by Abdullah Kane.
The group was also responsible for kidnapping and robbing the Padin Village administrator in August, as well as a furniture business owner and a former village administrator in May, said the RNO, which also accused the gang of other similar crimes.
In its statement, the RNO, also urged the Arakan Army (AA) to crush Abdullah Kane’s gang. Abdullah Kane, 55, was born in a village in southern Maungdaw, and is believed to have hideouts in Muslim villages and the Mayu Mountains in Rakhine.
A man who claims to be Abdullah Kane said in a video recently circulated on social media that he grew up being oppressed by the party cadres of his village during the rule of the Burma Socialist Programme Party led by the late dictator Ne Win. He added that he escaped from prison after he was unfairly arrested by village authorities and military intelligence during the previous junta’s rule. He warned that he would give ‘lessons’ to any Muslim administrators and businessmen who cooperate with the authorities.
It is an interesting fact that Abdullah Kane is still at large, despite the activities of the junta-controlled border guard force in Rakhine and the AA, which has been able to extend its influence over most of northern Rakhine State since the coup. His gang has also been able to operate without being confronted by either the ARSA or the RSO.
Locals said that Abdullah Kane was twice captured by authorities but then released, suggesting that he may have ties with the border guard police in Rakhine. Some locals have said that some of the murders and robberies his group is accused of were carried out by drug gangs in Maungdaw, but that Abdullah Kane has got the blame because of his previous activities.
There have been attempts by the AA to apprehend Abdullah Kane, but they appear not to have been serious efforts because Abdullah Kane has targeted only his fellow Muslims and has not touched ethnic Rakhine villages, said a Rakhine source who is close to the AA.
After agreeing an unofficial ceasefire with the Myanmar military last November, the AA has established its authority in Rakhine, implementing its own administrative and judicial systems. Muslim villagers have been included in the AA’s administrative mechanism, said observers.
There are also Muslim militia groups, tasked with law enforcement, in parts of northern Rakhine that have been trained and armed by the AA. But there is no such group in Maungdaw Township, where border guard police stations are concentrated in northern Rakhine.
When the AA and Myanmar military were clashing, the fighting took place mostly in Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships, and barely touched Maungdaw.
Muslim armed groups have been infiltrating into Maungdaw from Bangladesh, according to observers, where they are out of the reach of both Myanmar’s border guard forces and the AA.
Rohingya Armed Groups Active Again in Western Myanmar
At least three Rohingya armed organizations are believed to be operating along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Rakhine State.
www.irrawaddy.com
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Chin resistance fighters ambushed a column of over 50 junta soldiers who were marching to the southern town of Kanpetlet on Tuesday morning, reportedly killing ten and prompting retaliatory shelling attacks by the military.
The Chinland Defence Force (CDF) in Kanpetlet attacked the column of soldiers about four miles from the town at around 10am shortly after receiving information about their movements from resistance fighters based in the nearby town of Saw.
Besides the fatalities there were several junta soldiers injured in the attack. In response, military units stationed at a police station and in schools in Kanpetlet fired mortar rounds inside the town, said a CDF spokesperson.
“Their reckless shelling hit the town,” he said. “The [gunfire] from the column of soldiers did not hit the town, though.” The clash lasted until 9pm, he added.
The CDF has warned civilians not to travel between Kanpetlet and Saw, which are 12 miles apart, as fighting there could become more intense.
Fighting began again at around 7am on Wednesday morning. “There was a clash today but we cannot disclose any information yet as we do not know the exact number of casualties yet,” said a spokesperson of the CDF.
There was a brief pause in the fighting due to heavy rain, but the clash continued at about midday, said a CDF fighter involved in the battle.
On Saturday, resistance fighters from Saw, Kanpetlet and the nearby town of Yaw, teamed up to fight the military near Kan Chaung village. Then on Monday the guerilla fighters ambushed a convoy of 10 military vehicles and about 120 soldiers heading towards Saw from Kan Chaung.
The Saw People’s Defence Force said in a statement that it used landmines in the attack and injured five soldiers.
Earlier this month the underground National Unity Government declared a “resistance war” against the military junta.
The junta has not commented on the recent clashes near Kanpetlet.
Clashes between the Myanmar army and local resistance forces have been intensifying in the Yaw area of Magway Region since the National Unity Government (NUG) declared war on the coup regime.
A spokesperson for the Yaw People’s Defence Force (YDF) told Myanmar Now at least 70 junta troops have been killed since the September 7 announcement, but that his forces had endured no casualties, only injuries.
Fifteen soldiers are said to have died on September 9 and 10 alone in Gangaw, one of three townships that comprises the Yaw region; the other two townships are Htilin and Saw. The area borders Sagaing Region and Chin State.
“You could say that there are battles in every corner of the Yaw region. The situation has been tense,” the spokesperson said.
In order to crush armed resistance and local support for the PDF groups, the junta has been systematically burning down residents’ homes in the area, according to the YDF.
“The soldiers burn down villages when they lose a battle—they also shell civilian houses. There have been some people that have died because of it,” the YDF spokesperson.
The coup regime troops reportedly started with the villages of Hnan Khar and Htei Hlaw in Gangaw, setting fire to an estimated 100 homes over the last week. Myanmar army troops also killed 18 people in Myin Thar, also in Gangaw Township, on September 9. Many of the victims were teenagers who had been defending the village, locals said.
On Monday morning, junta troops killed two people who had been seeking refuge in a monastery in Kyaukse village, in neighbouring Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township, and reportedly burned down two houses in the area, according to villagers who saw the smoke from afar.
The YDF spokesperson said that the soldiers committed the alleged crimes after a clash with local resistance forces near a bridge located between Kyaukse and Gangaw, killing two of the military council’s troops.
During the clash, those who were able to ran to the forests, with elders staying behind at the monastery, he explained. One of the victims killed there was reportedly 55-year-old Kyaukse resident Thaung Myint—the name of the other individual was not known at the time of reporting.
Pyu Saw Htee explosives
A YDF attack on a police station 15 miles south of Gangaw on Saturday led to an unexpected discovery by the resistance, who targeted a police station in the village of Min Ywar but had to retreat upon the arrival of military reinforcements.
As they fled the scene, YDF members found a makeshift arsenal concealed some five miles away in Khauk Khu village. Here, they say the Pyu Saw Htee—a network of military supporters that has emerged to counter the anti-coup resistance—had stored explosives and ammunition worth 7 million kyat (US$3,825).
“When our troops arrived near Khauk Khu village, having heard there was Pyu Saw Htee armoury hidden there, we combed through the forest looking for it,” the YDF spokesperson said.
The YDF confiscated the weaponry, which included rifle bullets and highly sensitive dynamite typically used in mining activities.
He said that Pyu Saw Htee members had been supplied arms by the Myanmar army during clashes with the local resistance in the Yaw area.
“We heard that they weren’t allowed to use weapons except during battles. Many Pyu Saw Htee died during those battles,” he added.
Local resistance coalition forms
PDFs in the Yaw area have also joined forces to ambush the junta. On Monday, the Saw Township PDF fought alongside the YDF in an attack on a military column in Saw, which borders Mindat Township in southern Chin State.
The clash started at 11am near the villages of Kan Chaung and Khwin Chaung on the Gangaw-Kyaukhtu road, according to Yaw Padu, the 60-year-old leader of the Saw PDF.
He said the joint force intercepted the junta troops who were returning to their station in the occupied village of Kyauk Sit after terrorising other villages in Saw Township.
“We only used long-range weapons. We both employed heavy weapons,” Yaw Padu. “We fired a shell at them when we saw them moving towards Saw.”
The number of casualties on either side of the clash was not known at the time of reporting.
Another attack in Saw, which involved the use of landmines by the local resistance coalition, killed dozens of junta troops on Saturday according to Yaw Padu.
He said a Myanmar army soldier initially told residents of Kan Chaung village at 6am that day that some 60 soldiers would be joining the side of the people and would surrender their weapons.
When the villagers went to welcome who they thought were defecting troops, they instead were ambushed with both heavy and light weapon fire, forcing them to flee.
Later that afternoon, the PDFs launched a counterattack on the troops using landmines.
“We tried to offer them a chance to surrender their weapons but they started shooting and requested reinforcements. We heard 200 more reinforcement troops would be arriving, so we set up landmines,” Yaw Padu told Myanmar Now.
“The troops were marching towards the area on foot. We worked in groups and set up landmines,” he said, adding that some 30 junta soldiers were subsequently killed in the incident.
An unidentified group blew up the communication tower of military-linked telecom operator Mytel in Nwahtogyi Township, Mandalay. A Myanmar Now tally showed around 80 Mytel towers have been attacked since June.
Locals confirmed finding five bodies bearing gunshot wounds to head and abdomen, stab wounds, and signs of torture, on Sep 14 in Gangaw district, where military troops and local defense forces are engaging in a battle.
The Chinland Defence Force (CDF) in Kanpetlet attacked the column of soldiers about four miles from the town at around 10am shortly after receiving information about their movements from resistance fighters based in the nearby town of Saw.
Besides the fatalities there were several junta soldiers injured in the attack. In response, military units stationed at a police station and in schools in Kanpetlet fired mortar rounds inside the town, said a CDF spokesperson.
“Their reckless shelling hit the town,” he said. “The [gunfire] from the column of soldiers did not hit the town, though.” The clash lasted until 9pm, he added.
The CDF has warned civilians not to travel between Kanpetlet and Saw, which are 12 miles apart, as fighting there could become more intense.
Fighting began again at around 7am on Wednesday morning. “There was a clash today but we cannot disclose any information yet as we do not know the exact number of casualties yet,” said a spokesperson of the CDF.
There was a brief pause in the fighting due to heavy rain, but the clash continued at about midday, said a CDF fighter involved in the battle.
On Saturday, resistance fighters from Saw, Kanpetlet and the nearby town of Yaw, teamed up to fight the military near Kan Chaung village. Then on Monday the guerilla fighters ambushed a convoy of 10 military vehicles and about 120 soldiers heading towards Saw from Kan Chaung.
The Saw People’s Defence Force said in a statement that it used landmines in the attack and injured five soldiers.
Earlier this month the underground National Unity Government declared a “resistance war” against the military junta.
The junta has not commented on the recent clashes near Kanpetlet.
Clashes between the Myanmar army and local resistance forces have been intensifying in the Yaw area of Magway Region since the National Unity Government (NUG) declared war on the coup regime.
A spokesperson for the Yaw People’s Defence Force (YDF) told Myanmar Now at least 70 junta troops have been killed since the September 7 announcement, but that his forces had endured no casualties, only injuries.
Fifteen soldiers are said to have died on September 9 and 10 alone in Gangaw, one of three townships that comprises the Yaw region; the other two townships are Htilin and Saw. The area borders Sagaing Region and Chin State.
“You could say that there are battles in every corner of the Yaw region. The situation has been tense,” the spokesperson said.
In order to crush armed resistance and local support for the PDF groups, the junta has been systematically burning down residents’ homes in the area, according to the YDF.
“The soldiers burn down villages when they lose a battle—they also shell civilian houses. There have been some people that have died because of it,” the YDF spokesperson.
The coup regime troops reportedly started with the villages of Hnan Khar and Htei Hlaw in Gangaw, setting fire to an estimated 100 homes over the last week. Myanmar army troops also killed 18 people in Myin Thar, also in Gangaw Township, on September 9. Many of the victims were teenagers who had been defending the village, locals said.
On Monday morning, junta troops killed two people who had been seeking refuge in a monastery in Kyaukse village, in neighbouring Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township, and reportedly burned down two houses in the area, according to villagers who saw the smoke from afar.
The YDF spokesperson said that the soldiers committed the alleged crimes after a clash with local resistance forces near a bridge located between Kyaukse and Gangaw, killing two of the military council’s troops.
During the clash, those who were able to ran to the forests, with elders staying behind at the monastery, he explained. One of the victims killed there was reportedly 55-year-old Kyaukse resident Thaung Myint—the name of the other individual was not known at the time of reporting.
Pyu Saw Htee explosives
A YDF attack on a police station 15 miles south of Gangaw on Saturday led to an unexpected discovery by the resistance, who targeted a police station in the village of Min Ywar but had to retreat upon the arrival of military reinforcements.
As they fled the scene, YDF members found a makeshift arsenal concealed some five miles away in Khauk Khu village. Here, they say the Pyu Saw Htee—a network of military supporters that has emerged to counter the anti-coup resistance—had stored explosives and ammunition worth 7 million kyat (US$3,825).
“When our troops arrived near Khauk Khu village, having heard there was Pyu Saw Htee armoury hidden there, we combed through the forest looking for it,” the YDF spokesperson said.
The YDF confiscated the weaponry, which included rifle bullets and highly sensitive dynamite typically used in mining activities.
He said that Pyu Saw Htee members had been supplied arms by the Myanmar army during clashes with the local resistance in the Yaw area.
“We heard that they weren’t allowed to use weapons except during battles. Many Pyu Saw Htee died during those battles,” he added.
Local resistance coalition forms
PDFs in the Yaw area have also joined forces to ambush the junta. On Monday, the Saw Township PDF fought alongside the YDF in an attack on a military column in Saw, which borders Mindat Township in southern Chin State.
The clash started at 11am near the villages of Kan Chaung and Khwin Chaung on the Gangaw-Kyaukhtu road, according to Yaw Padu, the 60-year-old leader of the Saw PDF.
He said the joint force intercepted the junta troops who were returning to their station in the occupied village of Kyauk Sit after terrorising other villages in Saw Township.
“We only used long-range weapons. We both employed heavy weapons,” Yaw Padu. “We fired a shell at them when we saw them moving towards Saw.”
The number of casualties on either side of the clash was not known at the time of reporting.
Another attack in Saw, which involved the use of landmines by the local resistance coalition, killed dozens of junta troops on Saturday according to Yaw Padu.
He said a Myanmar army soldier initially told residents of Kan Chaung village at 6am that day that some 60 soldiers would be joining the side of the people and would surrender their weapons.
When the villagers went to welcome who they thought were defecting troops, they instead were ambushed with both heavy and light weapon fire, forcing them to flee.
Later that afternoon, the PDFs launched a counterattack on the troops using landmines.
“We tried to offer them a chance to surrender their weapons but they started shooting and requested reinforcements. We heard 200 more reinforcement troops would be arriving, so we set up landmines,” Yaw Padu told Myanmar Now.
“The troops were marching towards the area on foot. We worked in groups and set up landmines,” he said, adding that some 30 junta soldiers were subsequently killed in the incident.
An unidentified group blew up the communication tower of military-linked telecom operator Mytel in Nwahtogyi Township, Mandalay. A Myanmar Now tally showed around 80 Mytel towers have been attacked since June.
Locals confirmed finding five bodies bearing gunshot wounds to head and abdomen, stab wounds, and signs of torture, on Sep 14 in Gangaw district, where military troops and local defense forces are engaging in a battle.
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An official from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) said that the group attacked a column of Myanmar army soldiers in Tanai in Kachin State on Wednesday morning as they tried to advance towards the Kachin forces’ position.
Colonel Naw Bu, the KIA's information officer, confirmed that the KIA planted landmines to stop the junta troops who were marching northwest from Ta Ron village in Tanai Township to Shin Bway Yang (Shingbwiyang) town at around 6:30am.
“It was a defensive fight because the junta’s army was moving towards the KIA troops,” he said, adding that the number of casualties was not known as further information from the ground had not been made available.
A local man from Ta Hket village, around one mile from the scene of the attack, told Myanmar Now that residents could hear multiple weapons being fired.
“Along with the sound of landmines exploding, we heard six artillery shots, and the sound of small arms was constant,” he said.
Around 100 junta soldiers have been stationed in the 500-household Ta Ron—located more than 40 miles northwest of Tanai—since early September, according to the KIA’s Col Naw Bu, who added that the troops have been occupying a monastery and school in the village.
According to a report from the Kachin State-based Kachin News Group, the junta’s army summoned religious leaders and elders from Ta Ron on September 11 and informed them that they must prevent the KIA and the local People’s Defence Force (PDF) from attacking them. If they were attacked, they threatened to set fire to the village.
“It is not acceptable that they would advance but tell the KIA not to attack,” Col Naw Bu said.
In August, the KIA 2nd Brigade’s 45th Battalion attacked and set fire to a junta’s base near a bridge in Ta Ron. The local man who spoke to Myanmar Now speculated that the military’s advance on Wednesday might have been part of an attempt to regain control of the area.
He said that almost all the men in Ta Ron and Ta Hket fled the villages due to the high military tension in the area, but Myanmar Now could not independently verify the numbers of people who had left.
Since the shadow National Unity Government announced on September 7 that a full-scale resistance war against the junta had begun, fighting has broken out near Ta Ron, Ta Hket and La Ja Bum villages in Tanai.
The KIA has repeatedly stated its opposition to the February 1 military coup and subsequent junta rule.
The spokesperson for the military council could not be reached on Wednesday for comment.
Five policemen were killed on Friday morning when three defence forces jointly attacked a police station in Tedim, northern Chin State, according to representatives of the groups.
The Chinland Defence Force chapter based in the three areas of Kalay Township, Kabaw Valley and Gangaw Township (CDF-KKG) issued a statement on Friday confirming the assault on Khaikam police station, describing it as a reminder to the junta’s troops to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and fight alongside the resistance to topple the coup regime.
The statement said that in the attack, the CDF-KKG had collaborated with the People’s Defence Force Zoland and the Civic Defence Militia.
Ko John, a CDF spokesperson, told Myanmar Now that they plan to continue attacking the army and police, particularly since the National Unity Government (NUG) declared the start of a “resistance war” on the military dictatorship on September 7 and encouraged targeted attacks on all pillars of junta rule.
“We have further targeted military targets, including soldiers and police. We have discussed arresting and shooting them wherever they are found,” he said of the group’s actions since the declaration by the shadow government.
More than 20 policemen and seven soldiers in Chin State have left the junta’s armed forces and joined the CDM since the NUG’s announcement earlier this month, according to Ko John.
The CDF-KKG’s statement said that the fighting between the three local defence forces and the 20 police manning the Khaikam police station lasted around 20 minutes and left five of the policemen dead, but Myanmar Now could not independently verify the number of casualties.
On September 11, a joint force of the Chin National Army and the Civic Defence Militia attacked a military base in the village of Lungler in Chin State’s Thantlang Township. They reportedly set fire to the base.
Fighting between local resistance groups and the Myanmar army has also recently taken place in Kanpetlet, in southern Chin State, and Saw and Gangaw townships in Magway Region, which border Chin State.
Since the February 1 military coup, the resistance forces have attacked five police stations and two military bases in Chin State, according to the CDF.
The CDF has repeatedly implored the junta’s soldiers and police to join the CDM and offered to facilitate and provide them with support in the event of their defection.
“If the junta’s troops want to join the CDM, we arrange motorcycles to transport them from towns to rural areas. We also provide security for them,” Ko John said. “We also provide [financial] support. Those who brought their weapons in order to join us have been given a special reward of 5 million kyat (US$2,738).”
www.myanmar-now.org
The Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) has announced that it will launch an offensive against Myanmar's armed forces in Kayah State and the Karenni area in southern Shan State.
Fighting broke out between Myanmar's military and local resistance forces (CDF) in Hakha and Htantalang in Chin yesterday (Sep 18). Heavy artillery destroyed 19 houses while junta's troops shot dead a pastor, locals said.
Colonel Naw Bu, the KIA's information officer, confirmed that the KIA planted landmines to stop the junta troops who were marching northwest from Ta Ron village in Tanai Township to Shin Bway Yang (Shingbwiyang) town at around 6:30am.
“It was a defensive fight because the junta’s army was moving towards the KIA troops,” he said, adding that the number of casualties was not known as further information from the ground had not been made available.
A local man from Ta Hket village, around one mile from the scene of the attack, told Myanmar Now that residents could hear multiple weapons being fired.
“Along with the sound of landmines exploding, we heard six artillery shots, and the sound of small arms was constant,” he said.
Around 100 junta soldiers have been stationed in the 500-household Ta Ron—located more than 40 miles northwest of Tanai—since early September, according to the KIA’s Col Naw Bu, who added that the troops have been occupying a monastery and school in the village.
According to a report from the Kachin State-based Kachin News Group, the junta’s army summoned religious leaders and elders from Ta Ron on September 11 and informed them that they must prevent the KIA and the local People’s Defence Force (PDF) from attacking them. If they were attacked, they threatened to set fire to the village.
“It is not acceptable that they would advance but tell the KIA not to attack,” Col Naw Bu said.
In August, the KIA 2nd Brigade’s 45th Battalion attacked and set fire to a junta’s base near a bridge in Ta Ron. The local man who spoke to Myanmar Now speculated that the military’s advance on Wednesday might have been part of an attempt to regain control of the area.
He said that almost all the men in Ta Ron and Ta Hket fled the villages due to the high military tension in the area, but Myanmar Now could not independently verify the numbers of people who had left.
Since the shadow National Unity Government announced on September 7 that a full-scale resistance war against the junta had begun, fighting has broken out near Ta Ron, Ta Hket and La Ja Bum villages in Tanai.
The KIA has repeatedly stated its opposition to the February 1 military coup and subsequent junta rule.
The spokesperson for the military council could not be reached on Wednesday for comment.
Five policemen were killed on Friday morning when three defence forces jointly attacked a police station in Tedim, northern Chin State, according to representatives of the groups.
The Chinland Defence Force chapter based in the three areas of Kalay Township, Kabaw Valley and Gangaw Township (CDF-KKG) issued a statement on Friday confirming the assault on Khaikam police station, describing it as a reminder to the junta’s troops to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and fight alongside the resistance to topple the coup regime.
The statement said that in the attack, the CDF-KKG had collaborated with the People’s Defence Force Zoland and the Civic Defence Militia.
Ko John, a CDF spokesperson, told Myanmar Now that they plan to continue attacking the army and police, particularly since the National Unity Government (NUG) declared the start of a “resistance war” on the military dictatorship on September 7 and encouraged targeted attacks on all pillars of junta rule.
“We have further targeted military targets, including soldiers and police. We have discussed arresting and shooting them wherever they are found,” he said of the group’s actions since the declaration by the shadow government.
More than 20 policemen and seven soldiers in Chin State have left the junta’s armed forces and joined the CDM since the NUG’s announcement earlier this month, according to Ko John.
The CDF-KKG’s statement said that the fighting between the three local defence forces and the 20 police manning the Khaikam police station lasted around 20 minutes and left five of the policemen dead, but Myanmar Now could not independently verify the number of casualties.
On September 11, a joint force of the Chin National Army and the Civic Defence Militia attacked a military base in the village of Lungler in Chin State’s Thantlang Township. They reportedly set fire to the base.
Fighting between local resistance groups and the Myanmar army has also recently taken place in Kanpetlet, in southern Chin State, and Saw and Gangaw townships in Magway Region, which border Chin State.
Since the February 1 military coup, the resistance forces have attacked five police stations and two military bases in Chin State, according to the CDF.
The CDF has repeatedly implored the junta’s soldiers and police to join the CDM and offered to facilitate and provide them with support in the event of their defection.
“If the junta’s troops want to join the CDM, we arrange motorcycles to transport them from towns to rural areas. We also provide security for them,” Ko John said. “We also provide [financial] support. Those who brought their weapons in order to join us have been given a special reward of 5 million kyat (US$2,738).”
Coalition of Chin resistance forces attack Tedim police station
The joint forces reportedly killed five policemen in the attack, which they described as a reminder to the junta’s armed forces to join the side of the people
www.myanmar-now.org
The Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) has announced that it will launch an offensive against Myanmar's armed forces in Kayah State and the Karenni area in southern Shan State.
Fighting broke out between Myanmar's military and local resistance forces (CDF) in Hakha and Htantalang in Chin yesterday (Sep 18). Heavy artillery destroyed 19 houses while junta's troops shot dead a pastor, locals said.
