Fighting has escalated between resistance forces led by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and junta troops in villages near a strategic town in Bago Region’s Htantabin Township, residents and members of rescue teams say.
Clashes erupted in villages around Zayatkyi town on Friday as regime columns advanced to reinforce units stationed in and around the town, which lies on the eastern bank of the Sittaung River on the old Yangon-Mandalay Highway.
The headquarters of the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 27 is located in Zayatkyi town. Other junta bases and outposts circle the town.
The attacks on and near Zayatkyi create a new logistics nightmare for the junta because the old Yangon–Mandalay Highway) and a railway west of Sittaung River pass through the area, a military analyst said. When the KNLA and People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) take control of the highway in the Sittaung Basin, a vital supply route for the junta will be severed, and resistance forces can gain more influence and control of Bago Region, the analyst said.
Clashes occurred for nearly the full day on Monday at Kinpunchon village and other villages near Zayatkyi, a member of a rescue team in Htantabin Township told The Irrawaddy. As of Tuesday, eight civilians were killed by junta shelling in the township, the rescue team member said.
“On Saturday, three civilians fromKinpunchon village were killed and five injured due to shelling by the junta’s military … The [civilian] death toll rises to eight if we add fatalities from nearby villages,” he said.
Kinpunchon is adjacent to Zayatkyi; just a police station separates them.
Junta troops attacked Kinpunchon village with drones on Saturday and followed with artillery shelling.
Residents of Zayatkyi town and four villages near it – Kinpunchon, Doe Tan, Dar Htauk and Bagan Kwal – have fled to Taungoo and Htantbin towns or other villages and monasteries free from fighting.
On Monday morning, residents of villages around Zayatkyi were permitted to leave until 11 a.m. while combat paused, but rescue teams were not permitted to enter the villages to help evacuate residents, a rescue team member said.
The military analyst said that the fighting in and around Zayatkyi did not pose a threat to either Naypyitaw or Yangon due to their distance from the area.
He added that junta boss Min Aung Hlaing last week warned that the KNLA, PDFs and three brigades from the Karen National Union (KNU) were preparing to attack Bago Region’s Sittaung Basin.
“Now the fighting has broken out. I think it is the beginning [of the battle for the area],” he said.
In an August 5 television address to a nation at war, Min Aung Hlaing said that following the fall of Lashio the KNU was preparing to launch an offensive in the Sittaung Basin in northeastern Bago, where the capital of the region, Bago city, is located, using three brigades: 1, 3 and 5.
Bago Region’s Htantabin Township is east of the Sittaung Basin and under the control of KNU Brigade 3.
KNU chair Padoh Kwe Htoo Win said yesterday that the military dictatorship is “on the verge of being wiped out.” In a speech commemorating the 74th anniversary of the Karen Martyrs’ Day, he explained: “The resistance is so strong that the regime can no longer control it.”
The rescue worker said that as of Tuesday more than 1,000 people from Zayatkyi and nearby villages were taking refuge at more than 10 camps for internally displaced persons in Taungoo town, which is an about one-hour drive from Zayatkyi and about 30 minutes from some of the villages near the town where fighting is occurring.
In February, the KNLA, People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) and the Bamar People’s Liberation Army attacked bases and outposts around Zayatkyi.
Ethnic armies and their resistance allies have captured more than 70 towns in Kachin, Karenni, Chin, Rakhine and Shan states and Mandalay Region. They have taken control over large swathes of territory in most border states. The recent offensives in Mandalay and Bago regions show the armed revolution pushing into Myanmar’s heartland.
