The junta lost another frontline base near the Thai border to resistance forces on Wednesday morning after regime troops stationed at the base in Myanmar’s southernmost region, Tanintharyi, fled, leaving their weapons and ammunition behind, local media reported.
Ethnic Karen resistance fighters and their allies from People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) began attacking Maw Hta base in the region’s Dawei Township on Tuesday, according to The Tanintharyi Times.
The online news outlet quoted Lieutenant Colonel Saw Hmu Gay, a commander in the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), as saying that the regime troops did not put up much of a fight.
More than 40 junta troops from junta infantry Battalion 17 from Myeik Township were stationed at the base.
Saw Hmu Gay said they left their weapons and ammunition behind so that they could pass themselves off as civilians in order to escape the area.
Saw Hmu Gay was in command of the two KNLA battalions that, along with PDF troops, captured the junta base.
More than 30 weapons and a cache of ammunition were seized by resistance forces when they captured the base. A junta helicopter gunship attacked the base at about 11 am on Wednesday, but there were no resistance casualties.
On Jan. 14, KNLA and PDF troops seized the junta’s Kyaukhtu operational base in Dawei Township, the civilian National Unity Government’s Defense Ministry said. It said that 15 junta troops were killed and seven others arrested during the raid and that resistance forces did not suffer casualties. Weapons and ammunition were also seized from the base, it said.
Junta forces are also under attack in Tanintharyi’s Launglon, Myeik, Tanintharyi, Thayet Chaung and Yebyu townships.
The KNLA, along with other resistance groups, including PDFs, is fighting regime forces in Karen and Mon states and Bago and Tanintharyi regions. The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union and the PDF is the armed wing of the National Unity Government.
A massive, foreign-invested deep-sea port and a special economic zone are located in Dawei Township.
