A local civilian resistance group in Kayah (Karenni) State claimed its members killed more than 40 regime troops during clashes on Sunday.
Fighting broke out in the town of Moebye in southern Shan State’s Pekhon Township—near the Kayah State border—at around 9am on Sunday when members of the Karenni People’s Defence Force (KPDF) ambushed a local police station.
The battle lasted around four hours. At least 20 regime troops were killed and four who survived were taken as prisoners, a member of the KPDF told Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity.
One of the four troops captured alive by the KPDF was in police uniform and three were in plainclothes, according to photos that went viral on social media.
The KPDF member said that the local resistance fighters didn’t know how many of those killed were soldiers and how many were police officials, because some wore civilian clothes or what appeared to be partial uniforms, like camouflage trousers.
The junta-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar said on Monday that “some of the security members were killed in the attack” in Moebye and some were still “missing.”
The report described the local resistance force as “terrorists.”
After capturing the police station, the KPDF burnt it down and retreated from the area, the Karenni resistance force member said.
“Our members burned down all of their hideouts [at the police station]. When the army sent reinforcements to the area, we had already dispersed. We heard that they have now occupied the location,” the KPDF member said.
One KPDF member was shot and killed in the clash and two members were injured, he said.
In the meantime, regime forces opened fire on villages between Moebye and the Karenni State capital of Loikaw, where people who had fled recent clashes in the region had been seeking shelter. They were forced to flee the area again following the shooting.
The military’s Moebye-based Light Infantry Battalion 422 also fired heavy artillery aimed at the villages, locals said.
At least one person in the area was shot and injured by regime forces: a woman in her 50s who was travelling by motorbike from Moebye to Loikaw, according to locals. No further details were available at the time of reporting.
Demoso and Loikaw
On Sunday there were also shootouts between regime troops and Karenni civilian resistance forces in Demoso Township and Loikaw.
Around 30 soldiers who came to Demoso as reinforcements were ambushed by the civilian resistance force outside of the town on Sunday afternoon. Twenty-six of the regime troops were killed and four escaped, according to a KPDF member in Demoso who fought in the clash.
Local resistance fighters in Demoso attempted to capture a local police station on Sunday afternoon in a three-hour battle, according to local news outlet Kantarawaddy Times.
The KPDF members retreated when more regime troops entered the town as reinforcements, including in armoured vehicles.
Earlier that day, some 600 soldiers raided Dawh Mankha village in Demoso but no clash was reported there.
At around 1pm, regime soldiers began firing at the local resistance force in the neighbouring village of Dawh Tama Nge. Two locals were injured, including one child, according to a KPDF member who fought in the clash.
“A house in Sibin ward was hit by a heavy artillery shell. A 60-year-old man and a 12-year-old child were injured. The child was wounded on his right hand and the elderly man had injuries to his hands and legs,” the KPDF member said.
On Sunday afternoon, there were more shootouts between the junta’s armed forces and the local resistance in Loikaw, with clashes continuing until 9pm, locals said. Photos circulated on social media of regime forces patrolling the state capital in trucks and tanks.
In Bawlakhe, a town some 60km from Demoso, regime forces shot at three men on a motorbike near a security checkpoint outside of the town on Sunday morning, a local man told Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity.
He said that the three men were returning from fishing when the soldiers shot at them. One of them died from his injury, he added.
The soldiers took the body of the deceased man and arrested another who was injured. The third man reportedly escaped on his motorbike.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the information.
On Friday, the KPDF seized three security outposts from the military in Demoso and Bawlakhe townships with the help of a local ethnic armed organisation active in the area. Three police officers and two KPDF members were killed during the clash. Several locals were also arrested by the regime forces on Friday.
