WASHINGTON — An ambush by an unknown militia killed 26 Yamagato Industries security forces Thursday morning in Western Washington, 200 miles outside of Spokane. Yamagato Industries reconstruction representative Eiji Ito said the attackers were disguised as military and took advantage of a rainstorm to ambush a convoy on its way to the SEA-TAC Safe Zone site on Vashon Island. The attack occurred on February 7th, but word of the incident only reached media outlets this week due to a combination of communication challenges in the PNW Dead Zone and miscommunication between local armed forces and Yamagato Industries over jurisdiction.
“Combatants armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers attacked civilian and military vehicles carrying supplies near Cle Elum, a remote outpost between Spokane and the impending SEA-TAC Safe Zone site on the other side of Snoqualmie Pass,” a US Army lieutenant colonel said.
“They killed at least 20 and wounded 30,” he told NYT. Other officials later confirmed the attack and the casualty toll. This attack is one of many in an ongoing string of violence perpetrated across the PNW Dead Zone by what appears to be organized militias. Sources within the Pentagon have indicated that many of these militia cells are holdouts of extremist terrorist groups such as Humanis First and Pure Earth. The attack on February 7th, however, does not bear the same earmarks and was not perpetrated against SLC-Expressive targets.
A civilian photograph circulating through social media allegedly identifies at least two of the militia members. The photograph is believed to have been taken by a member of the west-coast freedom fighter group known as the Guardians and widely circulated to help identify the perpetrators of the attack. The authenticity of the photograph is unknown, as are the identities of the individuals depicted.