Burma
Members of the Special Operation Force resistance group pose with weapons seized from a military base in Kyainseikgyi Township on Wednesday. / SOF
Thirteen Myanmar junta soldiers including a deputy battalion commander were killed in Kyainseikgyi Township, Karen State on Wednesday when ethnic Karen resistance fighters and a People’s Defense Force (PDF) group occupied a military base.
Early on Wednesday, troops from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen Nation Union, and the Special Operation Force (SOF), a resistance group, raided forces from the regime’s Infantry Battalion 283 stationed in a hilltop pagoda in the township.
During an hourlong firefight, 13 junta soldiers including a deputy battalion commander were killed, a resistance officer told The Irrawaddy.
The SOF said 17 other regime soldiers fled the raid. Fifteen weapons and a quantity of ammunition were seized after resistance forces occupied the military base.
Resistance video and photos show the bodies of regime soldiers killed during the raid.
On Sept. 20, the KNLA and allied PDF groups occupied a junta outpost in Kawkareik Township, killing about 15 junta soldiers. The KNLA have seized at least five military outposts in Karen State since the military coup last year.
The KNU reported in August that it had been involved in 6,356 clashes with junta forces since the 2021 coup, killing around 5,125 soldiers and injuring an estimated 4,174. Meanwhile, it had lost 137 resistance fighters in the incidents.
