Fighting has intensified in southern Shan State as junta troops and the allied Pa’O National Organization (PNO) raid villages on the border between Pinlaung and Pekon townships controlled by Karenni resistance forces.
Fighting has been raging for around a month in at least five locations in the mountainous region since around 1,000 junta troops and PNO militias advanced from Pinlaung town, according to a resident of Banmauk village helping displaced people.
Clashes have escalated as the regime brought in air support. “Fighting has intensified over the past three days with daily airstrikes,” he added.
The regime is also increasingly using drones in its attacks, a member of the Pekon Township People’s Defence Force (PDF) told The Irrawaddy.
“Both sides have suffered casualties after they launched a large-scale attack. There were heavy casualties over the past few days,” he said.
According to an officer of the Moebye town PDF, 14 resistance fighters were wounded in the fighting.
Clashes have forced residents from some 16 villages along Pinlaung-Pekon road to flee their homes, and some villages are trapped in the fighting, according to a displaced villager from Banmauk village.
“They have been raiding villages for more than four weeks now,” he said.
The large-scale offensive on the Shan-Karenni border came after junta boss Min Aung Hlaing visited Hsihseng in southern Shan State and Loikaw in Karenni (Kayah) State on Sept. 4 and called for lost territory to be retrieved and “peace and stability” to be restored.
Karenni Nationalities Defense Force Battalion 11 wrote in a Facebook post on Oct. 1: “Fierce fighting at the gate of Karenni State. We are still struggling to help flood victims. Help us drive junta troops away.”
But The Irrawaddy was unable to obtain any more recent comment from KNDF officials about the fighting on Shan-Karenni border.
Karenni Army Adjutant-General Colonel Phone Naing said he did not know the details but suggested that the attacks aimed not so much to retrieve lost territory in Karenni State but as a preemptive measure to protect the junta’s nerve center Naypyitaw, which neighbors Karenni State.
Pinlaung Township is in the Pa’O Self-Administered Zone in southern Shan State, bordered by Nyaungshwe to the east, Pekon to the south, Naypyitaw’s Tatkon and Pyinmana townships to the west, and Kalaw Township to the north.
In August, the PNO provided military training to 10,000 militia members in Pinlaung.
