Combined forces of the Karenni Army (KA) and Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) seized control of Shadaw town in Karenni (Kayah) State on Monday morning, according to Karenni resistance sources.
“It’s confirmed that we seized Shadaw town yesterday. The junta’s military has suffered heavy losses. Now there are no junta military troops in Shadaw,” Colonel Bhone Naing, spokesperson and adjutant-general of the KA, said Tuesday.
The joint KA/KNDF force launched its attack on junta military troops in Shadaw on Jan. 15. On Monday the resistance forces seized the strategic hilltop outpost from junta military forces based in the town.
After wiping out the junta’s other military units in the town, the resistance forces surrounded the only remaining unit, based at the strategic hilltop outpost, for weeks.
In the first week of this month, the junta military used transport helicopters to send more than 60 troops from Light Infantry Battalion 249 into the area as reinforcements.
According to KNDF and KA sources, a junta military column comprising those troops abducted seven internally displaced persons (IDPs) as they moved through the area.
“After using them as human shields, the junta troops killed six of those IDPs, including children, a pregnant woman and a disabled person,” said a KNDF fighter on the ground.
The combined KA/KNDF forces attacked the column, which suffered at least 40 casualties. The remaining troops were dispersed. Before seizing the strategic hilltop outpost on Monday, the KA and KNDF fighters managed to wipe out all of the remaining soldiers, who had fled into a forested area.
At around 6 a.m. on Monday, the combined forces of the KA and KNDF launched an intense attack against the junta’s military troops at the strategic hilltop outpost and at least 40 soldiers, including the operations commander of Light Infantry Battalion 428, were killed.
“It’s true that we have also arrested about 30 troops and their families. And now we are taking control of the town,” said Col. Bhone Naing.
In Karenni State, the KNDF, KA and other resistance forces, including the People’s Defense Force of the National Unity Government, have so far seized Mese, Ywar Thit, Mawchi and Shadaw towns.
Although the resistance has not yet been able to fully capture Loikaw, the capital of the state, or Bawlakhae town after offensives there in previous months, junta troops control just very small areas of these towns.
