Fighters from the 3rd Battalion of the Kanbalu District Battalion and the People’s Defense Forces, currently fighting against junta forces in Myanmar, claimed they hit a double decker riverboat with shoulder fired rockets. They claim their strike killed 10 soldiers and injured another 40. The strike occurred at 1330 Mandalay local on May 16th, 2022.
From the fighters statement on Telegram: “One of three double-decker warships coming from Mandalay is hit by a shock missile, killing at least 10 soldiers.
One of the three double-decker warships coming from Mandalay was hit by a rocket, killing at least 10. The ship was hit by a rocket and sank off the coast, destroying homes. Troops from the mainland came and set fire to villages and motorboats on the west bank of the Irrawaddy River. It is learned that the army set fire to the whole village of Khayansap Kone village in Thabeikkyin Township and burned down the motorboats. About 300 troops from the port of Mandalay Gawin left for the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River on May 14 at 2 pm. Right Three double-decker ships named Mercury were carrying food and ammunition. Each double-decker ship has about 100 troops and three ships with 300 troops.”
The ensuing battle for the village of Khayansap Kone village in Thabeikkyin left at least three civilians dead and more than 65 houses destroyed after junta forces fired indiscriminately into the village.
Mandalay has historically been spared much of the fighting that has ravaged the Northern and Eastern regions of Myanmar where a majority of the ethnic fighting groups are waging guerrilla wars against the junta that took power in 2020. That is due to right government control of the historic colonial capital. However, this attack was initiated by the Peoples Defense Forces which are generally better supplied and organized than their ethnic counterparts. The People’s Defence Force (Burmese: ????????????????????????, romanized: Pyithu Kakweye Tatmadaw, lit.?‘People’s Defense Armed Forces’; abbreviated: PDF) is the armed wing of the National Unity Government (NUG), a body of democratically-elected legislators and officials that is widely accepted by the civilian populace to be the legitimate government of Myanmar.
Myanmar has been home to the longest running civil war in modern history, since 1948 when the Communist and Nationalist forces split once British forces officially turned over governance to the Myanmar people and ended the colony of Burma. While the country enjoyed relative peace since 2010, with the exception of a handful of fringe separatists, the 80 or so ethnic fighting groups united after the 2020 coup and have been killing anywhere from 10-20 government soldiers on average daily.
