Casualties mount in Myanmar’s south as battle enters third week

The military and resistance forces have both incurred losses in the battle for control of a village in Tanintharyi Region’s Thayetchaung Township, which local sources say has been ongoing for more than two weeks. Four resistance members have died in clashes over Gon Hnyin Seik village in Myanmar’s southernmost region, according to a source near the battle lines, while the military has suffered at least 20 casualties with the number of deaths unconfirmed. “There are losses among the comrades in these two-way battles,” the frontline source said on Monday. “On the Military Commission side, a column of over 100 men was trapped and is now down to about 80. That side has had a high rate of casualties.” “During these past two weeks, four comrades from our joint resistance forces have fallen. There are also some who have been injured,” he added. Fighters of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) had besieged and carried out attacks on the military’s Win Wa base camp—between the towns of Palauk and Thayetchaung—for a month before capturing it on March 11. After retreating from the Win Wa base camp while under attack by the resistance forces and KNLA, the army garrison regrouped along with a contingent of reinforcements from Kaleingaung, Yebyu Township in Gon Hnyin Seik around four miles to the west. The military’s ground troops in Gon Hnyin Seik, which is near the mouth of the Dawei River estuary on the Andaman Sea, have relied on a combination of air support and artillery fired from ships offshore to fend off the anti-junta forces’ assaults on the village. The military regime has continued to carry out airstrikes despite the growing risk of fuel shortages in Myanmar, sending K8W jet fighters and Y-12 aircraft on bombing raids over Thayetchaung Township. “Even on days without heavy shelling, their air force still carries out at least three airstrikes a day,” the frontline source told Myanmar Now. According to other sources close to the battle, junta naval vessels stationed on either side of the estuary off the villages of Ka Net Thi Ri and Kyauk Ni Maw have been shelling every day since the battle for Gon Hnyin Seik began. “They retreated toward Gonhnyinseik because they couldn’t retreat towards Thayetchaung,” one source said, noting the junta ground forces’ inability to break through the resistance fighters’ siege lines. “It seems they are waiting for the navy to rescue them. But the difficulty is that the shoreline near Gon Hnyin Seik is unsuitable for docking.” The PDF and their allies hope to block the military’s movements along the coastline and cut off junta supply routes into Tanintharyi Region. Fighting for Thayetchaung, Route 8 Another large junta ground force of 80 to 100 advanced into the township this week via the hills to the east, pushing towards the villages of Shin Moke Tee and Nyaung Zin south of Dawei, the capital of Tanintharyi Region. This force reached the village of Tha Yet Hnit Khwa just north of the town of Thayetchaung on Monday and entered the town's urban wards the following day, according to another source close to the resistance forces in the area. “They came down from the direction of Dawei; the dogs are now heading down from Tha Yet Hnit Khwa into Thayetchaung town by car,” the source said, referring to the junta troops. The junta is intent on moving into the area to retake control of Route 8, a vital trade route currently under resistance control that connects most of Tanintharyi Region’s towns to the crossing at Kawthaung on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Shells fired by junta forces in Thayetchaung Township routinely land on or near Route 8, according to resistance fighters in the area. “The Thayetchaung army units are firing 120mm heavy artillery day and night at villages south of Thayetchaung. Those shells sometimes explode on Union Highway 8,” one resistance source said. “Between Thayetchaung and Dawei they have also been conducting ‘area clearing’ operations along the Route 8 corridor. So we can say the security situation between Dawei and Palauk is concerning.” Resistance forces closed Route 8 to most traffic during the battle for the Win Wa base camp, but reopened the road for commercial freight trucks between Palauk and Thayetchaung on March 16 and 17 after winning control of the camp, according to sources familiar with commercial hauliers in the area. The civilian death toll in the township from shelling, airstrikes, and direct violence by junta forces since the battle for Win Wa is estimated to have climbed into the dozens, and the residents of at least 20 villages including Gon Hnyin Seik and Win Wa have been forced to flee their homes. According to a statement issued by the resistance-connected Thayetchaung Township Rescue Team, some 1,500 displaced people from three of these villages have been staying in orchards and on palm plantations due to the lack of more adequate shelter. The need for food and emergency shelter for the displaced is growing, according to rescue volunteers assisting them. Despite the intensification of conflict in the area, the military regime has issued no recent public statements about fighting in Tanintharyi Region.

Casualties mount in Myanmar’s south as battle enters third week

The outcome of the intense fighting in the area could determine control of Route 8 (Union Highway 8), a road allowing trade access between Thailand and Myanmar’s southernmost region

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