On February 19, 2022, Tatmadaw security forces clashed with People’s Defence Force militants and cleared the area between the villages of Thayetkan and Pe Kone, in Khin-U Township, in Sagaing Region. Among items recovered after the clash were five improvised anti-personnel mines, fashioned from small cylinders containing the explosive charge, with improvised pressure switches attached on top. A different model of improvised AP mine was evidenced after a raid on a PDF camp in the country’s northern Kachin State, earlier that month; and on two previous occasions, security forces neutralized pressure switches not yet fitted to IEDs. These recent incidents attest to a shift by local militants to using victim-operated initiation mechanisms, constituting a notable departure from their IED TTPs to date, which largely involved initiation from afar.
While the progression of improvised weapons in Myanmar is developing at a rapid rate, these AP mines fitted with different types of pressure switches have not been documented before now. This type of weapon can be widely used by militants as they are easy to assemble, lethal and well-suited for protecting militant camps and buried caches. Notably, as they essentially constitute victim-operated booby traps, the indiscriminate dissemination of AP mines and pressure switches as IED initiation systems by militants in this arena poses a risk for accidental initiation by the civilian population.
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