Eight PDF fighters killed in Magway while transporting weapons 

At least eight resistance fighters were killed on Wednesday when a truck they were using to transport weapons was intercepted by junta troops in Magway Region’s Pwintbyu Township. 

The incident occurred early Wednesday morning near the Maezali bridge, located some 20km southwest of the town of Pwintbyu, according to Kyar Gyi, a member of the Pwintbyu People’s Defence Force (PDF).

“They were transporting weapons and the military was waiting for them near the bridge. A clash broke out while they were still on the bridge,” he said, adding that some of the weapons in the truck exploded during the exchange of fire.

According to Kyar Gyi, the fighting started after junta troops at the southern end of the bridge, which crosses the Mone stream and links the villages of Maezali and Sedaw, stopped the truck to conduct a search.

“While the military was making the guys in the front seat get out of the vehicle, the ones in the back opened fire,” he said, adding that around 50 regime soldiers were involved in the clash.

The group that was transporting the weapons was from the Kamma PDF, based in southern Magway’s Thayet District, he added.

Three members of the group were captured alive, and several others managed to escape, according to sources in the area.

A video believed to have been taken by junta forces following the incident shows eight bodies, including one with its lower half missing and another with head and stomach wounds, lined up in a row. 

“Eight bodies, including the driver. Three captured alive,” a soldier can be heard saying in the video.

A resident of the area said that both Maezali and Sedaw have been sealed off as regime forces continue to search for the PDF fighters who escaped.

“We don’t know the details, but nobody has been allowed to leave either village since the fighting in the morning,” a local man told Myanmar Now on Wednesday.

The road west of the Mone stream has also been closed, according to Kyar Gyi.