Brigade 5 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) moved south from Karen State’s Hpapun Township (Mutraw) into Mon State late last week, leading its allies in seizing a junta tactical outpost, according to anti-junta fighters.
The Brigade 5 forces, joined by members of Brigade 1 and coordinating with other anti-junta resistance groups, captured the junta’s Me Pa Li tactical hill base in Mon State’s Bilin Township on February 1.
According to a statement from the Force for Federal Democracy (FFD) armed resistance group, the KNLA forces led the attacks on the base. Members of the FFD as well as Bamar People’s Liberation Army and the publicly mandated National Unity Government’s People’s Defence Forces fought alongside them.
Brigade 5 is one of seven KNLA brigades, each of which exercises control over a designated portion of the territory claimed by the Karen National Union (KNU). Brigade 5 territory is known as Mutraw or Bu Tho in the Karen languages and overlaps with Karen State’s Hpapun District.
The KNLA, which is the armed wing of the KNU, is Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed organisation.
The assault started shortly after 8am and the anti-junta forces had taken complete control of the hill by 11am, the statement said.
According to Aung Aung, the FFD’s second-in-command, the anti-junta forces’ plans and preparations for the battle had taken nearly a month.
In capturing the hill base, the alliance took 29 junta soldiers prisoner as well as seizing a wheeled howitzer, a 120mm mortar, a heavy machine gun, and various small arms, according to the FFD.
Facebook accounts focused on KNLA operations posted that there were officers among the anti-junta forces’ prisoners of war, including one tactical operations commander and one battalion commander.
The military council, which suppresses most news from the frontlines, has not issued statements about the clashes in Mon State or acknowledged the loss of the Me Pa Li base.
One KNLA soldier and an FFD deputy company commander named Myint Moh, also known as Nat Mauk, were killed in the battle for the base, according to Aung Aung.
“The deputy company commander was a capable fighter, known for the kindness and respect he showed to his subordinates and to allied forces. He carried out his duties with unwavering dedication and effort,” Aung Aung said of Myint Moh. “His loss has left everyone, especially his team, heartbroken.”
Brigade 5 launched an offensive in March 2024 targeting junta bases in Hpapun Township and succeeded in taking full control of the town of Hpapun.
The seizure of the Me Pa Li base served the KNLA-led forces’ long-term strategy of isolating a tactical command base and two battalion bases that are still under junta control south of Hpapun, cutting off their supply lines.
The Brigade 5-led alliance was initially unable to seize these bases in attacks launched shortly after the capture of Hpapun, and instead settled on a strategy of attacking and capturing smaller support bases in the surrounding territory one by one, tightening the blockade.
After KNLA-led forces captured several other junta support bases south of Hpapun, they succeeded in taking over Manerplaw, Hlaingbwe Township, the location of the KNU’s former headquarters, in December 2024.
Brigade 5 and its allies also captured a junta hill base in Ka Taing Ti village on the Kamarmaung-Hpapun road just eight days before taking over the Me Pa Li base.
The capture of the Me Pa Li tactical hill base has positioned the KNLA and allies to control the road between Bilin and Hpapun as well as reinforce the blockade around the remaining junta-controlled bases in Hpapun Township, sources connected to the alliance said.
“With the capture of Me Pa Li, they can now advance and launch offensives in Bilin and Kyaikhto. Likewise, from Ka Taing Ti, they can push into lowland areas like Hpa-an and Hlaingbwe under the KNLA’s leadership,” one resistance-connected source explained.
