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S.H.A.N. Reporter: Five Charges By Junta Troops, Five Repulses By Shans

Saengjuen Sarawin, who is with the Shan resistance unit defending a strategic stronghold across Chaingria, reported at 16:40 that junta forces attacking it had been successfully repulsed again. 

Junta units, comprising IB331, IB316 and the Nampoong militia force, attacking Loi Maemaw, a strategic mountain overlooking the surrounding area, west of Tachilek, eastern Shan State, resumed the attack at 06:00. "Throughout the morning up to 14:30, they made five charges backed by heavy shelling of the Shan positions", said Saengjuen, Editor in Chief of Shan Herald Agency for News. "They retired with heavy losses in the afternoon". 

The attack against the Shans started after the Shan State Army of Yawd Serk ambushed a drug caravan escorted jointly by IB331 of Tachilek and the Nampoong militia force of Yishay on 13 December. The seized amphetamine tablets, 400,000 in all, were handed over to the Thai authorities two days later. 

The Shan State Army's statement says the campaign against drugs is in line with its Fifth Guiding Principle: Anti-narcotics. It also alleges that the result of the ambush on Monday proves beyond doubt the junta itself is involved in drugs.