Regime Launches Airstrikes After Karenni Army Seizes Camp
By Network Media Group
Friday, January 7, 2022
The Karenni Army (KA) has captured a junta camp on the Thai border after an attack on Friday morning in which many Burma Army (BA) soldiers were killed and 4 soldiers were taken alive, a Karenni leader told NMG.
According to Aung San Myint, the second secretary of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), which is the political wing of KA, the regime immediately responded with an air strike on the Karenni soldiers and the KNPP headquarters in Nyer Mo.
At the same time, the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) attacked the junta’s office in Loikaw and in Mai Lon ward, according to a local. He said the night before, the civilian resistance group attacked BA in the Karenni State capital. Regime shelling in Mai Lon and Pan Kang wards from Thursday to Friday killed six people and damaged many houses.
“An elderly woman died of a stroke after a shell hit near her house in Mai Lon ward last night (Thursday). Another shell that hit near her house today killed her 40-year-old son and injured his wife and child,” the man said. The bodies of three people killed by the artillery fire are still lying near the railway tracks, waiting to be taken away.
According to Aung San Myint, there has been fighting throughout the state, both in the towns and in the jungle. Apart from Mai Lon and Pan Kang, there have also been clashes in Thone Mai, Nga Mai and Chauk Mai. And violence has broken out in Dor Poe Si in Shardaw. ”They are attacking us with combat helicopters and fighter jets.”
Following the coup nearly a year ago, several ethnic armed groups fighting the dictatorship have seized BA camps across the country. In January, the Kachin Independence Army captured the strategically important Alum Bum BA camp in Kachin State. The Karen National Union seized Thee Mu Hta camp and several others along the Thai border from the military. And KA recently captured the BA’s camp near the Nam Pang River in Karenni State.
The conflict that began after last year’s coup, which also involved many civilan resistance groups across the country, has intensified in 2022.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 200,000 people have been displaced since the military overthrew the government. Before that, 370,000 people had already been forcibly displaced. Volunteers helping them say they need emergency aid, but fighting, pandemic restrictions and the regime actively blocking support to the camps have hampered relief efforts for the displaced civilians, many of whom have not been home for months.
