All but three junta border bases eliminated in Dooplaya, Karen fighters claim

The Myanmar military regime now controls only three remaining outposts in the territory claimed by Brigade 6 of the Karen National Union (KNU), according to KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee. The territory—which the KNU calls Dooplaya District—shares a border with Thailand and encompasses parts of Karen and Mon States as well as Tanintharyi Region. It lies between the Kyondo-Kawkareik-Myawaddy segment of the Asian Highway in the north and Tanintharyi’s Yebyu Township in the south, and is bounded by Route 8 to the west and the Thailand-Myanmar border to the east. Fighters of the KNU’s Brigade 6 resumed offensive operations on junta army outposts south of Myawaddy, Karen State in October last year, successfully capturing the Kanelay, Thay Baw Boe, and Mawkhee bases near the town of Lay Kay Kaw, some eight miles south of Myawaddy. The remaining junta outposts are Hteethaelae, Oakkarithta, and Waw Lay bases, also south of Myawaddy, Myanmar’s largest town on the Thai border. “Since fighting is ongoing at these outposts these days, I can’t say yet,” Padoh Saw Taw Nee told Myanmar Now when asked about the state of battle. “We’ll know in a day or two.” The junta troops stationed in Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass are unable to provide ground support to the military regime’s outlying bases in Dooplaya District. KNU fighters have attacked and captured the junta’s army outposts on the border one by one, most recently taking control of the Hteekapalee outpost on Sunday some 11 miles south of the junta’s tactical base in Waw Lay, Myawaddy Township and 40 miles south of Myawaddy. Spokespersons for the KNU central command and administration said the KNU’s armed wings—the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and Karen National Defence Organisation—were joined in the offensive by fighters of the People’s Defense Forces, commanded by the publicly mandated National Unity Government. Hteekapalae briefly served as a headquarters for the KNU after fighters allied with the military seized the organisation’s headquarters in Manerplaw, Hpapun Township in 1995. Hteekapalee also fell to attacks by the military a few years later, and its recapture by the Karen fighters is a significant symbolic victory. “Manerplaw fell by 1995, and Brigade 6 relocated. We regrouped in Hteekapalae, but we only got to stay for two years. When their major offensive came in 1999, we had to relocate again,” said Padoh Saw Taw Nee. “There's not much more to say about it. We're ready with fresh energy and strength to take the next step.” Brigade 6 fighters also set up ambushes for junta forces in coordination with the Ramanya Mon Army (RMA) near Kyondo, Kawkareik Township this month. The RMA was among the anti-junta forces that took part in a KNLA-led attack on a junta convoy dispatched to reinforce the military’s Aung Zeya column in Kawkareik on June 19. The group is newly formed from an alliance of two older Mon anti-junta armed groups. An RMA spokesperson said the anti-junta forces fought with the troops in the convoy—made up of members of Light Infantry Division (LID) 44 and LID 55—for around seven hours near the villages of Nwar Chan Kone and Inn Gyi outside Kyondo. No fewer than 30 soldiers were killed, he claimed, and 10 including a battalion commander and at least two other officers were injured. Myanmar Now was unable to verify these casualties independently.

All but three junta border bases eliminated in Dooplaya, Karen fighters claim

The Karen National Union’s Brigade 6, which operates in the territory designated as Dooplaya District by the Karen organisation, is fighting for control of the last few junta outposts in the area outside the towns of Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass

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