Irrawaddy-Oct 15
Daily ambushes and attacks on Myanmar’s regime targets have put Sagaing Region at the center of the armed revolution against military rule. Following the 2021 coup, the revolution started in Sagaing when anti-regime protesters took up improvised firearms and old-fashioned hunting rifles to stop junta troops killing civilians during a crackdown in Kale, which has a mixed Bamar and Chin population, on March 28 last year. In March last year, the regime escalated crackdowns, killing hundreds of peaceful demonstrators across the country, including in Yangon and Mandalay. By April 2, 2021, a prolonged clash was reported in Yinmabin Township, Sagaing Region, when residents with improvised weapons fought nearly 100 troops attempting to raid Thapyay Aye village, where a protest leader lived. On April 7 last year, residents in Taze Township used slingshots, air guns and improvised firearms to fight regime forces arriving in seven vehicles to break up a demonstration of tens of thousands in the town. Now sprawling Sagaing, which straddles the central plains and has no experience of armed rebellion, has become a resistance hub. Many resistance groups have acquired automatic firearms and upgraded improvised weapons and explosives. They are increasingly attacking army outposts and police stations in the large region. In upper Sagaing, the Kachin Independence Army is cooperating with resistance groups to attack regime forces. Outside the towns, the junta has lost control. But regime bases and junta-controlled government departments and offices in towns are increasingly being attacked by urban resistance groups.The region has reported the second-highest number of clashes with junta forces after Karen State, which had reported over 6,000 with the armed wings of the Karen National Union and their resistance allies by September. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/analysis/how-sagaing-is-at-forefront-of-revolution-against-myanmars-junta.html
