Resistance Groups Report Heavy Myanmar Regime Losses

Around 20 Myanmar junta soldiers and pro-regime militia members have been reportedly killed in resistance ambushes. According to Irwaddy.com, the soldiers were killed in Taze Township as the Taze People’s Defence Force (TPDF) and other resistance groups ambushed about 80 soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militia members near Shwetakyaw village in the Sagaing Region’s Taze township.

The ambush came after junta troops started raiding villages to the east of the township on October 6. Ten regime forces were reportedly killed while around 20 others were injured, according to resistance fighters. Those numbers, however, have not been confirmed.

The TPDF used landmines to ambush the forces on a bridge. The bodies of the deceased were reportedly carried by helicopter to Taze, while the injured were transported to Taze Hospital. Taze is a resistance stronghold that had begun fighting on April 7 of last year when heavily armed troops reportedly killed at least 11 civilians and injured almost 30.

Taze News, which documents regime atrocities, says that by October 1, 2022, 68 civilians had been reportedly killed while 2,111 civilian houses had been burned in arson attacks in the township by the junta.

Meanwhile, almost 200,000 Myanmar nationals have crossed into Thailand since the military takeover, which ousted the democratically-elected National League For Democracy party in late 2020. The coup saw the leader of the party, Aung San Suu Kyi, arrested and jailed along with other members of the party. Thousands more Burmese citizens have been reportedly arriving through the jungle every month. The lucky ones get picked up by nongovernment organisations that help them file applications seeking refuge or asylum. The rest continue to remain stateless having close to no resources available when stepping foot on Thai soil.

Thailand officially does not recognise immigrants coming from war-torn countries, forcing many of them to take up compromising jobs with little to no workers’ rights. The Thai government has chosen to remain rather neutral in response to the coup in neighbouring Myanmar.