A Burma Army (BA) battalion commander and several other soldiers were killed in fierce clashes with four Chin resistance forces in Rihkhawdar, Chin State, on the border with India.

Lt-Col Wai Myo Pai and four other soldiers were killed when the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) raided their hilltop camp in Ward 2 for five hours on 10 August.

The regime has deployed its troops on two strategically important hills above Rihkhawdar in wards 1 and 2.

“Four BA soldiers ran away and then surrendered to us. Many of their soldiers were also wounded in the clash,” the Zoland PDF spokesperson told Khonumthung News.

The Zoland People’s Defence Force, the Chin Defence Militia – Siyin, the Chin National Defence Force and the Mountain Eagle Defence Force took part in the recent attack on the BA camp, in which junta soldiers in Ward 2 fired artillery at them, killing one civilian and seriously injuring two others.

Immediately after the violence ended, a junta jet fighter plane was spotted circling over Rihkhawdar and Mual four times.

Most residents living in Ward 2 have crossed the border and sought shelter in Zokhawdar in the Indian state of Mizoram.