Local defence forces based in southern Shan State say that tensions are rising in and around the town of Moebye as junta troops return a week after suffering major losses there.
According to an officer from the Pekhon People’s Defence Force (PDF), at least 150 regime soldiers stationed in Wari Su Palai, a village south of Moebye, entered the town late Sunday night “in order to carry out operations.”
The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the troops have since taken up position in several wards of the town, which is located near the border with Karenni State.
“I heard that the junta forces are back to launch more attacks in Moebye, where they lost a large number of weapons and troops,” he said.
He added that heavy artillery was also fired from a base in Pekhon, some 15km to the north, to clear the way for the military column that marched into Moebye on Sunday.
It was a week earlier, on September 11, that the army was forced to pull its troops out of the town after losing at least 60 soldiers during four days of fierce fighting with local anti-regime groups in Moebye’s Pwel Kone Ward 3.
According to a local woman, junta troops were seen stationed in the ward again on Monday, as well as at the Mwe Daw Monastery in Moebye’s Myoma Ward.
“They are only allowing people to leave Myoma now, not enter. And they are stopping every vehicle on the Moebye-Pekhon road and telling them to turn back,” she said.
Last Friday, junta shelling killed four people, including two children, and injured several others sheltering at the Mwe Daw Monastery in Myoma Ward.
Since then, most of Moebye’s roughly 30,000 inhabitants have reportedly fled in anticipation of a further intensification of the conflict.
According to the woman who spoke to Myanmar Now, Pwel Kone Ward 3 is now completely deserted, while only a handful of people remain in some other wards, such as Nyaung Waing, Zay Kone, Kwat Thit, and Pwel Kone Ward 1.
“Some people can’t flee because of their financial hardships, or because they don’t have cars or motorcycles. Some just don’t have anywhere else to go,” she said.
On Monday, the Moebye PDF released a statement saying that junta troops were firing heavy artillery from a railway station between Wari Su Palai and Moebye. It also warned local civilians to avoid highways and find safe places to stay.
According to resistance sources, at least 100 houses in Moebye have been destroyed by shelling or airstrikes carried out by Myanmar’s military since the start of the month.
Meanwhile, fighting has also been reported in neighbouring Loikaw Township, where three junta troops and two members of the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) were killed during clashes near the village of Padar Nyay on Saturday, according to a KNDF statement.
The statement also claimed that a total of 80 regime soldiers were killed in the second week of September in areas where the KNDF is active, including Moebye and Karenni State’s Loikaw, Demoso, and Hpruso townships.
