Myanmar junta launches first drone attack on Karen National Union headquarters

The Myanmar military carried out a drone strike on Tuesday morning on the headquarters of the Karen National Union (KNU) in Hpa-An District, Karen State, a KNU spokesperson said. Executed between 11am and noon, the attack occurred at the organisation’s Hpa-An District or Brigade 7 headquarters during a routine meeting among the Karen political organisation’s leading members, according to the Brigade 7 information officer. He added that the attendees immediately ended the meeting and withdrew to a safe location. A KNU official noted that the strike—targeting an office that also serves as a base and command centre for members of the KNU’s armed wings, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and Karen National Defense Organization—was the first such attack by the military since the coup of February 2021. “It was around 11:30. They launched four bombs, but there were no casualties,” the official said, adding that there had only been damage to the onsite dining hall. “It was the first time they came to attack the headquarters,” he said. “Since we’re in conflict with them, we have to be prepared for defence.” In recent days, the KNLA and its allies have succeeded in capturing an artillery battery on a tactical hill base near the Lay Kay Kaw new city development project south of the border town of Myawaddy, Karen State. They have also reportedly inflicted heavy losses on the Aung Zeya column, one of the military’s best-equipped elite forces. Three junta soldiers were killed with a rocket launcher on October 10 in Hpa-an Township’s Win Sein village last week, reportedly by KNU associates, while providing security for census-takers. The census is widely understood in Myanmar as preparation for elections that the junta plans to hold next year, a move that opponents of the military’s rule have condemned as illegitimate. However, the junta forces’ precise motives for the drone attack remain unclear. Padoh Mahn Ba Tun, head of the KNU’s forestry department, interpreted the junta’s attack as a threat directed at the Brigade 7 headquarters and leadership rather than a strategic move, as less recent fighting has occurred in Hpa-an District—the Brigade 7 territory—than in that of any other KNU brigade. “This is the first time,” he said, highlighting the unusual nature of the attack. “But it wasn’t a full-scale attack, more like a warning.” After the 2021 coup, the resistance forces had pioneered the use of drones for launching offensives, but more recently the military has increasingly adopted the tactic, launching more drone attacks across the country. The Myanmar military, coping with a shortage of manpower in a multifront war, has been relying less on the deployment of infantry troops and increasingly resorted to the use of artillery, airstrikes, unmanned drones, and signal jammers to disrupt the resistance’s own drone operations. Between September and October, the junta launched several drone attacks within the territories of the KNU’s Brigade 3 in eastern Bago Region and Brigade 4 in Tanintharyi Region. Captain Kaung Thu Win, a military officer who defected and joined the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement following the 2021 coup, said the military typically uses drones for short-range attacks launched from well-established, secure bases. “They often use drones from their strongholds to attack surrounding areas and camps close to them,” he said. The Brigade 7 headquarters in Hpa-an District is relatively close to the military’s bases in the city of Hpa-an, the Karen State capital, making it vulnerable to such attacks.

Myanmar junta launches first drone attack on Karen National Union headquarters

The unprecedented targeting of the Karen ethnic organisation’s Hpa-an District command centre comes a week after members of the group’s armed wing reportedly killed three junta soldiers involved in census-taking, but the regime’s motives remain unclear

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