Three police officers taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against military rule were rescued on Monday following an attack on a police station in Karen (Kayin) State’s Myawaddy Township, according to local reports.
Armed forces under the command of the Karen National Union (KNU) and their resistance allies also captured three other police officers in the attack, Karen State-based news outlet KIC reported, citing KNU sources.
The KNU-led forces successfully withdrew after overrunning the Waw Lay police station in Myawaddy on Monday morning, according to KIC. No further details were available at the time of reporting.
The night before the assault on the Waw Lay police station, KNU forces also carried out attacks in eastern Bago Region’s Htantabin Township and Mon State’s Kyaikhto Township, sources in both areas told Myanmar Now.
According to Saw De Pho, an officer with Brigade 2 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the group clashed with junta troops from Infantry Battalion (IB) 73 in Zayat Gyi, a village in Htantabin Township, on Sunday evening as a “warning”.
The KNLA previously clashed with IB73 in May, when it killed two junta troops, Saw De Pho told Myanmar Now. Casualty figures from the clash on Sunday, which lasted about an hour, were still not known, he added.
IB73 has been active in KNU territory in Bago Region’s Nyaunglebin Township and Karen State’s Mutraw (Hpapun) District, according to Saw De Pho.
Meanwhile, KNLA troops and their allies killed three regime soldiers at a checkpoint on the Yangon-Mawlamyine highway in Kyaikhto Township on Sunday, according to an officer of the Kyaikhto Revolutionary Force (KRF).
The Mote Palin checkpoint, which is located about 25km from the town of Kyaikhto, has been attacked at least 10 times since it was set up about a year ago, the KRF officer said.
“They always fire their weapons randomly and stop every passing vehicle for searches,” he said, explaining why the checkpoint has been a frequent target of local resistance forces.
Despite the regime’s calls for peace talks with ethnic armed groups as it continues to face unprecedented pressure from a host of resistance forces around the country, the KNU continues to mount attacks on junta targets in its territory.
In March, it overran a junta base in the village of Maw Khee, seizing a large cache of weapons and ammunition, and last month, it seized control of the Thay Baw Boe base near the Thai-Myanmar border, capturing six soldiers and killing several others.
