Resistance fighters led by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) seized the junta’s strategic Mae Pale base in Mon State’s Belin Township on Saturday.
Fighters from the People’s Defense Force (PDF), Bamar People’s Liberation Army (BPLA), and Force for Federal Democracy (FFD) were led by the KNLA, the armed wing of the country’s oldest ethnic revolutionary group, the Karen National Union.
They seized the base where around 100 junta troops were stationed on Saturday after a month of fighting, arresting 29 regime troops including battalion commander, Ko Aung Aung, an FFD spokesman told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
“We had trouble seizing the base due to junta airstrikes and the advantageous geological location, but we overcame them,” he said.
Many more junta troops were killed in the fighting.
A video released by the BPLA shows resistance fighters storming the base and dragging out regime forces they had taken captive.
The FFD said one of its own troops and a KNLA fighter also lost their lives.
Their weapons haul included three howitzers.
Late last year, the KNLA-led joint force recaptured the Manerplaw area of Karen State, where KNU Headquarters had been based 30 year ago.
