A whole lot of Myanmar navy troops occupied a Mon State village after a coalition of armed resistance teams raided a neighborhood police station, killing three junta personnel and capturing 4 alive on Saturday.
Members of two forces: the Karen Nationwide Liberation Army (KNLA), an ethnic armed group, and the Individuals’s Defence Pressure (PDF), which operates below the publicly mandated Nationwide Unity Authorities, collectively attacked the police station within the village of Chaung Hnit Khwa in Kyaikmayaw Township. They check with their coalition within the space because the Pink Dragon resistance column.
The KNLA and the Kyaikmayaw chapter of the PDF launched the assault at round 5:30am, in keeping with a PDF supply who was concerned within the raid. Two junta plane arrived on the conflict web site simply after 7am and bombed the realm surrounding the village, he stated, initially trapping Chaung Hnit Khwa’s 1,000 residents locally.
The village is situated some 27 miles southeast of Kyaikmayaw city, and subsequent to a close-by bridge connecting Mon and Karen states. The PDF supply defined that the Chaung Hnit Khwa bridge is manned on the Karen State aspect by a Myanmar military-backed Border Guard Pressure (BGF) checkpoint, and {that a} junta police outpost is positioned on the Mon State aspect.
Three policemen have been killed within the assault: Cpt Hla Kyaw Oo, and two police privates. Forces below the Pink Dragon column additionally confiscated 4 M16 weapons, one AK-47, and ammunition.
“This was the primary main battle there, however I’ve additionally heard that revolutionary forces have been utilizing drones to assault them,” the PDF officer advised Myanmar Now. He added that the KNLA and PDF had ambushed the BGF submit on the bridge in April, reportedly killing 5 troops, however not encountering a critical conflict.
In accordance with locals, the BGF unit working round Chaung Hnit Khwa is below the command of Battalion 1021, which is headed by Noticed Htay Naing, a veteran of the drive who was accused greater than 10 years in the past in native media of confiscating a whole lot of acres of land from locals in Karen State’s Kawkareik Township and reselling it for revenue.
Quickly after resistance forces left the village, round 200 regime troops arrived and began raiding the realm, in keeping with Cpt Noticed Eh, a spokesperson for the resistance column. Amongst them have been BGF troopers and members of the Pyu Noticed Htee militia, which is armed and educated by the Myanmar navy.
“They began stationing themselves within the village after our assault. [The military] additionally bombed the realm from aircrafts and carried out clearance earlier than occupying the entire village,” Cpt Noticed Eh advised Myanmar Now on Monday.
After being trapped through the airstrike, Chaung Hnit Khwa’s residents fled the occupation, with few returning the subsequent day, the resistance column spokesperson, citing data he had acquired from locals.
The Chaung Hnit Khwa bridge was additionally reopened, with junta troops permitting locals to go.
Six homes within the village have been reportedly destroyed through the Saturday airstrike and two locals have been wounded, however additional particulars in regards to the extent of the injury and accidents weren’t recognized on the time of reporting.
Cpt Noticed Eh stated that rigidity round Chaung Hnit Khwa remained excessive, with additional preventing prone to get away.
“A reconnaissance airplane has been flying across the space and I believe they’re planning an assault,” he defined.
A number of navy autos have been seen patrolling close by villages on Sunday afternoon, with troopers randomly firing their weapons alongside the street. An aged man travelling by motorbike was shot and introduced by a neighborhood rescue staff to a hospital within the Mon State capital of Mawlamyine, one other native resistance supply stated.
