Resistance forces attack military-occupied village near Myanmar-India border 

An alliance of local defence forces launched a morning assault on a village in Sagaing Region’s Tamu Township on Wednesday where junta troops and members of the Myanmar army-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia had stationed themselves. 

The resistance coalition ambushed Pan Thar village, under two miles from Myanmar’s border with India, to avenge a member of the Tamu People’s Defence Force (PDF) killed last year by the same troops and militia members, an officer in the PDF’s Battalion 3 explained.

In tribute, the attack was called “Operation Sun Ye,” a reference to the fallen guerrilla fighter. 

“We are a joint force and they’re also a joint force of the military and Pyu Saw Htee. They were in a defensive position and we were on the offensive,” the officer said. 

Using heavy artillery and guns, the junta forces returned fire against the guerrilla fighters from within bunkers and civilian houses that they had occupied in Pan Thar. 

The Tamu PDF reported that around 30 enemy troops were killed in the nearly seven-hour battle and five resistance fighters were injured. 

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the number of casualties. 

“The military suffered a great deal of losses, and we withdrew to tend to the injuries of our men,” the Tamu PDF officer said, adding that the junta forces had retreated to Man Maw village, west of Pan Thar. 

That evening, soldiers came back in three ambulances to retrieve dead and injured troops from the village, according to locals. 

Tension remained high in Tamu at the time of reporting, with 10 trucks of Myanmar army reinforcements from Kalay arriving in the area, the PDF officer said. The soldiers reportedly stopped in the village of Khan Pat, on the border between the two townships, and confiscated civilian vehicles in order to continue their journey into Tamu. 

Junta forces have become frequent targets of resistance groups in Tamu attempting to drive out the coup regime’s troops.

In January, three police and two military officers were killed in a guerrilla attack just outside the township’s border with Kalay.