In Muse Township, a local guerrilla group assaults a Myanmar army unit that had just fought the ethnic Kokang MNDAA. An officer from a rebel organization in the northern Shan State township of Muse claimed responsibility for a fatal strike on a Myanmar army convoy returning from the frontlines of a conflict with ethnic Kokang forces earlier this month.

        The targeted military force, which comprised soldiers from Light Infantry Battalions 240 and 241, was on its way to its tactical camp at Milestone 105 on May 4 when they were attacked on the highway between Lashio and Muse by the People Security and Defence Army - Muse (PSDA-Muse).

        The soldiers in issue had just fought the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnic Kokang armed group, according to a statement made by the PSDA-Muse. At the time of publishing, there were no more information concerning the confrontation.

        A military truck was destroyed in the attack, according to photographs provided to the PSDA-Facebook Muse's page. According to them, 20 servicemen were killed and four were injured. The number of victims could not be reliably verified by Myanmar Now.

        The PSDA-Muse had apparently been waiting along the roadway to ambush those forces, assuming the military would deploy reinforcement soldiers to its confrontation with the MNDAA. When they weren't deployed, they changed their strategy and assaulted a unit returning from war, according to the group's officer.

        "Our fight lasted almost an hour, and we tracked them down as they escaped." We attacked them in a snap, so they didn't have time to prepare," he told Myanmar Now. "One died during the combat and another died as we were withdrawing," he added, adding that the PSDA-Muse also lost two men in the event.

        Zaw Gyi, 33, was slain while attempting to recover weapons from the fallen troops, while Mee Tauk, 22, was killed when resistance fighters escaped from the site. Despite the junta unit's superior weaponry, the officer said that his company was able to cause damage by employing guerilla tactics.

        He stated that the military had launched repeated assaults on sites where they suspected members of the resistance were hiding in the days after the highway conflict, but he did not provide any more information about the locations of these strikes.