A raid on a military outpost in Mandalay Region’s Natogyi Township last week left 11 soldiers dead and three others wounded, according to the group that carried out the attack.
The outpost, located at a school in the village of Su Phyu Kone and manned by 20 soldiers, came under attack by a group calling itself the Zero Guerrilla Force late last Friday.
Using handmade mortars and small arms, the group raided the outpost at around 10pm that night and killed an army captain and 10 others stationed there, the group’s leader told Myanmar Now.
The bodies of the casualties, including Capt Tun Tun Aung from Light Infantry Battalion 113, based in Meiktila, were collected by the military the next morning, he added.
A Facebook post that reported the incident the day after it occurred was later deleted after military supporters commented that the casualty figures were inaccurate.
“We later managed to get the exact number of casualties,” said the Zero Guerrilla Force leader, who asked not to be identified by name.
He added that the group has been carefully observing troop movements in the area amid a recent buildup of military forces.
“We have taken note of all the geographical information, all the entrances and exits, and we are watching their movements,” he said, noting that there are currently around 350 junta soldiers deployed around the village.
Local sources say that a number of arrests have been made since the raid, but the junta has yet to make a statement on the attack or its response.
Natogyi Township has seen a number of serious clashes in recent weeks. In late September, four members of a family living in the village of Shaw Hpyu, including an 18-month-old child, were killed by army shelling.
In addition to direct engagements with military forces in the area, the Zero Guerrilla Force has also targeted suspected junta informants and communications towers operated by Mytel, a telecoms company partly owned by the Myanmar military.
