A major is among three killed in a landmine attack on Myanmar army troops travelling in civilian vehicles through Sagaing Region, according to the Htigyaing PDF.
The Htigyaing People’s Defence Force (PDF) carried out a landmine attack against a military column with three civilian vehicles in Sagaing Region’s Htigyaing Township on Sunday, killing three soldiers including a major, according to the anti-junta resistance group.
A Htigyaing PDF spokesperson told Myanmar Now that they had received information that the column would be travelling from Mandalay’s Thabeikkyin Township along the Mandalay-Bhamo road. The PDF then intercepted the troops near Maungkone village, six miles southeast of Htigyaing, at around 8pm.
“We attacked them with landmines first and later shelled them, which completely destroyed one of their cars and killed everyone in it. The other two cars were damaged as well,” the spokesperson said.
He added that the bodies of the deceased soldiers and the remains of the destroyed cars were collected from the scene by the military overnight.
Myanmar Now tried to contact the junta’s information officers to respond to the Htigyaing PDF’s description of the incident, but all calls went unanswered.
A local said that the town of Htigyaing appeared to be functioning as normal on Monday morning, but that there were some soldiers patrolling the area.
The military has killed at least eight locals and detained 20 in the township since the shadow National Unity Government declared the start of a “resistance war” against the junta on September 7.
On October 11, the junta’s troops raided the village of Laythar, some 10 miles north of Htigyaing, resulting in a clash with the PDF that killed five of its members—including four whose bodies were later found and one whose body remains missing. The raid also led to the capture of several young men by the military.
Armed resistance to military rule in Htigyaing has escalated since the township’s PDF was formed in May. The group torched two police outposts in the township in early October. Almost all of Htigyaing’s junta-appointed administrators from the area’s 38 wards and village tracts resigned after being warned to do so by the end of September by the Htigyaing PDF.
Since its formation, the Htigyaing PDF has reported that its members have killed at least 50 junta soldiers and several junta administrators and suspected military informants.
source myanmar-now