The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) have seized all of the junta’s positions in Mone in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi Township, the Karen National Union (KNU) said Monday, making it the first town to be completely seized by resistance forces in Bago.
Some 1,500 resistance forces are now clearing the town in Nyaunglebin District, said the KNU, which is the KNLA’s political wing.
The KNLA and PDF have been fighting junta troops in Mone since Saturday night, launching coordinated attacks against the junta’s Light Infantry Battalions 590 and 599, the central police station, and a military checkpoint at the entrance to the town.
Both sides suffered heavy casualties in the fighting, and large numbers of junta troops including a battalion commander surrendered to the resistance forces, the KNU said.
Further details were not immediately available.
KNU spokesman Padoh Saw Kler Say said the KNU had no intention of occupying Mone, adding that the operation was targeted at forcing junta troops from their positions in the town. However, he acknowledged that Mone is strategically located on roads to both the junta’s nerve center, Naypyitaw, and areas on the Myanmar-Thai border controlled by the KNU.
“It is fair to say those junta positions [that we have seized] are critically important for military purposes. Those positions are close to Naypyitaw, and [the regime] may have stationed [the forces in the town] to protect Naypyitaw. It is also strategically located on the road to the Myanmar-Thai border.”
Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun confirmed the resistance attack on Mone, and admitted that the central police station had fallen. However, he told junta media that Myanmar military bases in the town had managed to repulse resistance attacks with air and artillery support.
“There were few police at the police station, and members of the Myanmar Police Force had to evacuate. The Tatmadaw [Myanmar’s military] was able to fully protect the Thantar checkpoint and battalions on the road to Kyaukkyi,” the junta spokesman was quoted as saying by junta newspapers.
Mone town is located on the eastern bank of the Sittaung River in the east of Phyu Township in the territory of the KNU’s 3rd Brigade.
The regime carried out air raids, and junta positions in Phyu Township provided heavy artillery support for ground troops in Mone during the fighting.
Residents of villages in Phyu reported hearing the junta’s aerial attacks. Mone town residents and civilians from villages along the Sittaung River have fled the fighting. There were civilian casualties as the battalions in Mone town carried out continuous shelling, the KNU said.
The regime carried out two air attacks against Yedwingone Village in Mone town on Nov. 30, damaging two houses. Two civilians from Letpantan Village were also injured in a junta artillery strike, according to the KNU.
The regime has lost control of several towns since the launch of Operation 1027 by the Brotherhood Alliance in northern Shan State in late October.
