Karen armed group intercepts vessel carrying Myanmar military’s supplies in Andaman Sea

The decades-old armed group Karen Nation Liberation Army (KNLA) claims to have captured a ship carrying army food supplies last Thursday off the shore of Tanintharyi Region. The group’s Battalion 11 stopped and boarded the vessel in the Andaman Sea, finding more than 2,000 sacks of rice along with other foodstuffs in waters under KNLA Brigade 4’s claimed jurisdiction, according to a statement released by the organisation. “We intercepted an enemy boat that was transporting rice sacks and other supplies at sea,” said Brigade 4 spokesperson Saw Ehna. The KNLA also claimed the vessel is linked to a leading member of a junta-trained militia based in Tanintharyi Township. In addition to confiscating the rice and other supplies, the Karen group said it destroyed some military-manufactured goods found on board. Supplies seized from the intercepted supply ship (Photo: Karen Information Centre/Facebook) Battalion 11 is reportedly holding the boat’s helmsman and seven of its crew members for questioning. “They are in custody at the moment, but we will release them after we have completed our investigations,” Saw Ehna said. The Karen armed organisation detained the vessel as it was sailing towards Tanintharyi Township from Myeik, Tanintharyi Region, later reporting that there were no soldiers on board. The military regime has been using civilian vessels and vehicles to supply its bases after losing control of a major overland route connecting the towns of Kawthaung and Myeik in Tanintharyi Region. “The military regime has used civilian vehicles to move food supplies and wounded soldiers,” Saw Ehna said. “But now they’re mainly relying on waterways.” In addition to the KNLA’s Brigade 4, the armed anti-junta forces operating in Tanintharyi Region include five resistance battalions under the command of the publicly mandated National Unity Government’s defence ministry, as well as locally based resistance teams. Clashes broke out last Thursday between the military and some of these groups in Kyauk Ni Maw village, Launglon Township some 90 miles northwest of Myeik and Tanintharyi’s regional capital of Dawei. Three days later, anti-junta forces also attacked a junta base near San Hlan village around three miles southwest of the junta-held town of Launglon.

Karen armed group intercepts vessel carrying Myanmar military’s supplies in Andaman Sea

In a demonstration of its reach and power, the country’s oldest surviving ethnic armed organisation says its members stopped a seagoing vessel moving shipments of rice to military bases

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