Allied resistance forces seized a key police station in Phyu Township, Bago Region in a predawn attack on Wednesday, People’s Defense Force-Southern Regional Command said.
The police station, around 8 km south of Phyu town, is located in Nyaung Pin Thar Village on the strategically important old Yangon-Naypyitaw-Mandalay highway and just a few kilometers from another strategic route, the Yangon-Naypyitaw-Mandalay Expressway.
Phyu town is only a two-hour drive from the junta’s administrative capital Naypyitaw and 215 km from the country’s commercial hub Yangon.
The police station was destroyed and burned by allied resistance forces during the predawn attack as part of an offensive operation concentrating on the Sittaung River Basin, a representative of PDF-Southern Regional Command claimed.
The operation was jointly launched by the PDF, the armed wing of the civilian National Unity Government; the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the country’s oldest ethnic revolutionary group the Karen National Union (KNU); the Bamar People’s Liberation Army; and allied resistance forces on Dec. 2.
“At least 30 junta troops and police personnel were killed during the attack by the PDF and allied resistance forces,” said Tin Oo of the PDF-Southern Regional Command.
No casualties were reported among allied resistance forces, according to the PDF. The Irrawaddy was unable to confirm precise casualty figures for the junta troops.
The battle lasted nearly an hour, after which the surviving junta troops abandoned the station. Weapons and ammunition were also seized by the resistance forces, according to the Royal Peacock Column, which took part in the attack.
The junta reportedly responded to the seizure of the police station with shelling and air strikes, causing many villagers to flee to Phyu town.
Mone town in neighboring Kyaukkyi Township in eastern Bago, around 23 km from Nyaung Pin Thar Village, was seized by allied resistance forces on Dec. 3. Allied resistance forces attacked two junta infantry battalions, a police station and a military checkpoint at the entrance of the town. The KNU claimed that more than 100 junta troops were killed during the clashes.
At least 21 junta troops surrendered to allied resistance forces during earlier clashes in Mone town in early December. Allied resistance forces also evacuated around 60 family members of surrendered junta troops to safer places, according to the PDF.
At least two civilians were killed and two were injured by junta air strikes and shelling in Mone town in late November, according to the KNU.
