Hundreds Of Myanmar Regime Soldiers Killed In Clashes With KNU's Armed Ethnic Military Wing

The military regime's weapons were confiscated by the KNLA and ANC soldiers last May. (Source: ANC via Myanmar Now)

JAKARTA - The armed ethnic Karen National Union (KNU) claims its troops have succeeded in killing more than 180 soldiers of the Myanmar military regime, since the beginning of last June.

In a statement last week, at least 26 soldiers of the Myanmar military regime were killed and 35 others injured and fighting in the past week in Hpapun, Karen State, the KNU Information Department said.

"Between 15 and 22 July, there were 29 clashes between the military regime forces and the Brigade 5 of the armed wing of KNU, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)," the statement said.

A civilian was killed along with five buffaloes when the Myanmar military regime fired about 40 rounds at a village in one clash, the statement continued.

Meanwhile, two military vehicles and a bridge at the entrance to Hpapun, also known as Mutraw, were destroyed. However, the statement did not provide details of the victims on the KNLA side.

In a statement, KNU said that the Myanmar military had been indiscriminate in several parts of the cellphone to hunt down youths suspected of participating in fighting the regime. Unable to find the youths, the military detained the parents. The junta has not publicly commented on the announcement.

Brigade 5 spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Saw Kler Doh said the KNLA killed more than 150 soldiers of the Myanmar military regime in June and 10 others in the first week of July.

Separately, the KNLA's 1st Battalion clashed with the Myanmar military-backed Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) in Thaton, across the border in Mon State on July 17. There were two serious injuries on the BGF side and none in the KNLA claims the ethnic armed KNU.

Fierce clashes between the KNLA and the military began after the February 1 military coup, which KNU strongly opposed. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee due to airstrikes on Hpapun and Nyaung Laybin.

"Although the airstrikes were targeted at Brigade 5, this is an act of terrorism in all Karen and ethnic Karen areas by a terrorist organization i.e. the military," KNLA deputy commander Lt. Gen. Saw Baw Kyaw Heh told Myanmar Now last April.

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