The Burma Army (BA) detained 30 villagers and murdered three of them in southern Kalay Township when soldiers occupied their village following fierce clashes with the Kalay People’s Defence Force (PDF) in Sagaing Region.
An officer from Kalay PDF’s Battalion 1 told Khonumthung News that the junta soldiers torched some houses in Thayar Kon after fighting near Kalay Technical University between 2 and 4 August.
There are 300 houses and nearly 1,500 residents in Thayar Kon, most of whom are Chin nationalities. Most of the people managed to escape before the BA column intruded their village.
According to the Kalay PDF, they and the Vakok Chin National Defence Force (CDF), the Kalay-Kabaw-Gangaw CDF and the Revolution Kalay Defence Force (RKDF) attacked government soldiers along the Kalay-Gangaw road near Thayar Kon on 3 and 4 August, killing 15 BA soldiers and wounding many others. Five PDF fighters were also killed and fourteen PDF, two CNDF and one RKDF were wounded.
Some of the groups clashed with regime fighters near a government housing in Tawng Hpilar ward of Kalay town on 5 August, killing at least six BA on the spot in an ambush on two military trucks with landmines, while four of the wounded soldiers died on the way to hospital. The regime retaliated by firing indiscriminately in different directions and shooting one civilian dead, but it’s still unknown whether the victim survived the attack.
According to the PDF officer, at least ten soldiers from another military column stationed in Kanper Ni village were killed and ten wounded after they were ambushed with landmines on the way. A BA military helicopter landed after the clash to remove the dead.
On 4 August, PDF fighters killed about 20 soldiers after the 60-strong column, which was travelling from Tamu to Kalay with 14 military trucks, crossed a hidden landmine field containing 12 explosive devices at mile post 55. The BA shelled nearby Razajo, killing one villager and burning some of the houses in the village.