Deadly military shelling hits Shan-Karenni border as junta tries to take strategic route

Junta troops shelled several villages in eastern Pekon Township on Saturday, killing at least five civilians as part of an ongoing offensive to seize control of a key highway linking Karenni State’s capital, Loikaw, to military-held areas in southern Shan State. At least six villages on the eastern shore of Pekon Lake came under junta shelling on Saturday, killing at least three men and two women, local resistance forces said. “Four people were killed in one village and another woman was killed in a separate village,” a spokesperson for the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) told Myanmar Now. At least seven others were also wounded in the shelling which occurred at around midday on Saturday. The villages attacked were Sin Phyu and Nawng Lai, but further details remain unclear. Hundreds of residents are still trapped in the area, the KNDF spokesperson said. Local sources added that junta bases in Pekon, Loikaw, and Demoso townships have been routinely launching artillery strikes on villages in eastern Pekon. At least 4,000 people have been displaced from eastern Pekon after the military regime retook Moebye, situated on a major village tract, commonly known as the gateway to Karenni State in early July, according to local rights groups. A column of junta troops has been advancing through eastern Pekon Township since capturing the village of Hsawng Nang Huu in June, pushing along the highway that connects Meobye to the junta-controlled capital of Loikaw. On July 11, the military regime claimed it had taken control of and reopened the main highway connecting southern Shan State and Karenni State. However, fighting is still underway along part of the highway that connects Moebye and Loikaw, local Karenni resistance forces said. Clashes also persist in Hpasawng Township, where Karenni resistance fighters are engaged in efforts to capture the last remaining junta base on the outskirts of the town of Hpasawng. In May, resistance forces launched a major assault on the town of Bawlakhe, making significant gains and seizing parts of the town in a push to challenge junta control throughout Karenni State.On the same day, the military regime launched aerial assaults on Hsipaw, a town held by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in northern Shan State. A school was damaged when bombs landed on two residential wards in Hsipaw according to Ta’ang ethnic armed group. At the same time, a junta base captured by resistance forces last year was bombed by a military warplane in a separate attack on Sunday. The TNLA also claimed that junta airstrikes on July 4 and July 14 killed at least two people and injured five others in Hsipaw Township.

Deadly military shelling hits Shan-Karenni border as junta tries to take strategic route

The shelling of six villages marks the junta’s latest effort to tighten its grip on Karenni State

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