Six soldiers, including a captain, were killed in an ambush in Chin State’s Falam Township on Friday morning, according to the Chinland Defence Force (CDF), which carried out the attack.
Two military trucks carrying reinforcements were attacked while traveling on the Falam-Kalay road, the group said.
“We were defending against reinforcements coming to Hakha. It started at around 8am. At least six from the military were killed. Their truck was thrown off a cliff,” a CDF spokesperson told Myanmar Now.
The battle, which went on for more than three hours, also claimed one CDF casualty, the spokesperson added.
The attack took place as civilians in Mindat Township, some 400km south of Falam, were coming under fire from junta forces, according to a local civilian resistance group.
The Mindat People’s Administration Team said the military had targeted vehicles carrying food and other supplies for civilians displaced by recent clashes in the area.
Shooting was reported on Friday morning in the villages of Chi Chaung and Pu Kun, both of which are now under military control, a member of the group said.
“It’s not even two armed groups that are fighting. The junta is cruelly attacking people who are carrying rations and medicines for IDPs. It’s vile and inhumane,” he told Myanmar Now.
Mindat has been under the military’s control since it launched a major offensive in the area on May 15. This was followed by battles in Hakha and Tedim townships, in the northern part of the state.
The day after the military’s assault on Mindat, four junta soldiers were killed in a shootout in Tedim, according to the CDF.
The group said that it also carried out an attack on a security outpost near Hakha University on Tuesday that claimed the lives of four regime troops and left at least 14 others injured.
Another battle broke out on the Hakha-Matupi road on Wednesday. That clash left three soldiers dead and at least five others injured, the CDF said.
A spokesperson for the military council could not be reached for comment on the CDF’s statements.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday that “armed vigilantes” had attacked a security gate, a regional camp in Hakha, and a police station in Kanpetlet using hunting rifles and small arms on Monday.
The regime’s forces retaliated and the assailants retreated, the junta mouthpiece said, adding that the military suffered no casualties in the attack.
In the state capital Hakha, military troops have reportedly been posing as civilians and using non-military vehicles to transport reinforcements and carry out land-clearance operations.
The Hakha CDF has warned local civilians to exercise care when out in traffic and to avoid being on the streets between 10pm and 5am due to the current circumstances.
