The junta army is continuing to rely on support from the navy in its fight against resistance forces in Palaw Township, Myeik District, located on the Andaman Sea coast in southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi Region.
Junta warships began shelling several of the township’s coastal villages—including To, Pi Tat, Ma Daung and Let Ku—from offshore using heavy artillery on the morning of September 11, according to members of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF).
Naval ships continued shelling along the coast in Palaw Township as army troops engaged in a series of clashes with resistance fighters over the following week.
On the morning of September 15, resistance forces attacked a junta army column stationed in the township’s Let Ku village and killed four junta soldiers, a spokesperson for Myeik District PDF Battalion 1 said. A 48-year-old man was killed by artillery fire from junta warships during the fighting.
The junta column retreated following the clash, torching 12 houses before withdrawing from the village, according to a statement issued by resistance fighters on September 16.
With reinforcements arriving in the area after the clash, the junta troops returned to Let Ku and advanced to the village monastery, taking more than 100 local people captive to use as human shields, according to resistance fighters. The junta then cut off internet and phone connections in Palaw Township.
Four civilians and nine PDF fighters were later killed in a joint army and navy attack on resistance forces in Ma Daung village, Palaw Township on Monday, according to Ko Star, the commander of the Tanintharyi Region PDF.
He added that the junta forces had also suffered losses in the clash, but details about the casualties remained uncertain.
“The positions and names have not yet been confirmed,” he said, referring to the soldiers killed on the junta side.
Posts on pro-junta social media channels claimed on the night of the clash that the military council’s troops had successfully captured a PDF base near Ma Daung. Images on the same propaganda channels showed bodies wearing resistance insignia and firearms purportedly seized from the PDF.
In total, ten members of the anti-junta armed resistance and six civilians were killed between September 11 and 18 in Palaw Township, according to information gathered by the resistance forces.
The town of Palaw has strategic importance due to its location on Route 8, the main road used for overland shipping and commerce between Thailand and Myanmar in Tanintharyi Region.
Several battalions of the PDF–which operates under the command of the defence ministry of the publicly mandated shadow National Unity Government–have allied with the Karen National Liberation Army in operating checkpoints along Route 8, among other measures to control territory in Tanintharyi Region.
The anti-junta groups’ control of the road has forced the military to rely more on maritime routes to move reinforcements, supplies, and weapons in southern Myanmar.
