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By The Irrawaddy 9 June 2022
Round ten junta troopers have been reportedly killed on Tuesday when a column of 100 regime troops was ambushed in Kayah State, southeast Myanmar by a mixed power of Karenni resistance teams. The column retreated on Wednesday.
Junta troopers left the Kayah capital Loikaw round 8.30am on Tuesday heading for Moe Bye, and have been attacked by Karenni resistance fighters at midday by the Balu Chaung River in Moe Bye.
The conflict continued till 3.30pm, with the junta’s gentle Infantry Battalion 442 primarily based in Moe Bye and a regime battalion primarily based in Loikaw supporting the column with artillery strikes.
“We ambushed junta reinforcements at midday. It’s honest to say that the preventing was somewhat fierce,” stated an info officer of the Karenni Nationalities Protection Drive (KNDF).
Round ten navy regime troopers died within the firefight and a few resistance fighters have been additionally injured, in accordance with the KNDF. The Irrawaddy couldn’t independently confirm the casualties.
“They [the junta column] have retreated. Navy tensions are operating excessive and clashes can occur any time,” the KNDF info officer advised The Irrawaddy.
Six resistance models together with Folks’s Protection Drive (PDF) teams in Pekon and Moe Bye, the Karenni Military, the KNDF and the Southern Shan Revolution Youth took half within the preventing.
Some 1,000 Moe Bye residents fled their properties following the preventing, in accordance with the Karenni Human Rights Group. A lady was killed by a junta artillery strike and two different civilians have been injured. A sick man died of shock brought on by the artillery strikes, in accordance with the Moe Bye PDF.
An ethnic affairs analyst primarily based in Myanmar stated that the regime lacks the troopers to launch a large-scale navy operation in Kayah, as a result of it has needed to reinforce its troops in Rakhine and Shan states.
“I believe the navy can’t perform large-scale navy operations for now. It should solely conduct small-scale operations to discourage the KNDF and allied forces from advancing to Loikaw and Moe Bye. Resistance forces are getting stronger in Kayah State and so they have armed themselves. However the regime can’t deploy further troops. So it will possibly solely management cities now, and so they have misplaced management of transportation routes,” stated the analyst.
Through the wet season, Kayah State is extra prone to see ambushes and shock assaults in cities by Karenni resistance teams fairly than a large-scale assault by the regime, instructed navy and ethnic affairs analysts.
There are greater than 20,000 resistance fighters in Kayah State, with ten per cent of them are armed with computerized assault rifles and the remaining with do-it-yourself rifles, in accordance with a report One Yr: The Momentum of Myanmar’s Armed Riot collectively printed by the Tagaung Institute of Political Research and the US-based Wilson Heart,
“On account of a lack of knowledge and assist from native individuals, the overstretched junta troops might be unable to forcefully prolong their sway past city areas, solely solidifying the areas they at present management. Within the upcoming wet season, resistance forces will search to forcefully contest the junta’s management in city areas, which is able to result in intensified conflicts throughout the Karenni theater,” acknowledged the report.
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