9 junta soldiers killed after a refugee base in northwest Sagaing was attacked by Junta forces posing as civilians. The militia suffered 1 casualty.

At least 10 people were killed when troops loyal to Myanmar’s junta attacked a base used to assist refugees in northwestern Sagaing region, but were outmaneuvered by militiamen using guerrilla tactics to overcome a deficit in firepower, sources said Friday.

A member of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) militia in Sagaing’s Mingin township, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that his group had been evacuating thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from an area east of the Chindwin River Thursday when a group of junta soldiers and regime-aligned paramilitaries known as the Pyu Saw Htee arrived and began to engage them.

“We were helping the IDPs with their health and security issues when the military council came into the forest,” he said, using regime opponents’ term for the junta, which calls itself the State Administration Council.

“They were posing as civilians. We let them get close to our hideout because we thought they were villagers from elsewhere and were taken by surprise. We saw nine of their bodies left behind [after we repelled the attack].”

The PDF fighter said that despite the surprise attack, members of his militia used their knowledge of the jungle to outflank the junta soldiers and only suffered one casualty.