People’s Defence Force (PDF) fighters said they bombed a military supply train as it passed through the Mandalay Region town of Kyaukse on Sunday morning, destroying the engine cab and a cargo compartment.
The train was travelling from Mandalay to Naypyitaw and then Yangon and had no passengers on any of its eight compartments, a member of the Kyaukse PDF told Myanmar Now.
“After making observations, we found that it was a logistics train for the military council,” he said. “We saw that it was also guarded by some plain clothed soldiers and had no passengers. We only commenced the attack after observing closely.”
The guerrillas planted a mine on the train track and detonated it from a distance when the train passed, he said.
He said he did not know how many people were killed or injured in the blast. The train was carrying ammunition, food and other supplies meant for soldiers in Yangon, he added.
The military has been using trains to transport weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to areas where it is battling resistance fighters around the country, the Kyaukse PDF said in a statement on Sunday. Civilians should take great care when using trains, it added.
After the bombing, about 10 military vehicles were seen heading towards Kyaukse from Mandalay, locals said.
Trains ground to a halt in Myanmar in the wake of the February 1 coup as railway workers joined mass strikes aimed at crippling the new junta. But the military forced some to return to work with deadly crackdowns and threats of further violence.
The focus of the anti-junta movement has now shifted to guerilla-style attacks on military targets, as well as people suspected of working with the coup regime.
The junta has declared PDF fighters across the country terrorists. It has not commented on Sunday’s attack.
On Saturday a different guerilla group, the Kyaukse District Defence Force, said it destroyed two phone towers owned by Mytel, the telecoms company part-owned by the Myanmar military.
