Pa-O, Karenni forces seize control of town in southern Shan State

A joint force of Pa-O and Karenni fighters captured the town of Hsihseng in southern Shan State on Thursday after a day of fierce clashes, according to local sources. The town, located about halfway between the Karenni State capital Loikaw and the Shan State capital Taunggyi, is part of the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone (SAZ). A resident of Hsihseng who spoke to Myanmar Now late Thursday said the flag of the Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLA), an ethnic armed group that had previously avoided clashes with regime forces, had been raised around the town, although fighting had not completely stopped. “There is still some shooting, as the junta army still has some troops here,” he said, adding that the PNLA and its Karenni allies started firing on the regime forces at around 11am that morning. In response, the military began carrying out airstrikes on the town, whose residents had earlier been evacuated by the allied ethnic forces. The PNLA is one of two major Pa-O armed groups operating in the area. The other is the junta-aligned Pa-O National Army (PNA), the armed wing of the Pa-O National Organisation, which administers the Pa-O SAZ. While the PNA is estimated to have as many as 3,000 troops under its command, the PNLA has around 400. As a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement of 2015, the PNLA has until now not been involved in the armed resistance movement against the regime that seized power in February 2021. However, tensions flared last Saturday after the pro-junta PNA commandeered a PNLA weapons convoy near the village of Sanhpu in Hopong Township, which is also part of the Pa-O SAZ. As fighting between the two sides escalated, it gradually reached Hsihseng, where the PNLA seized control of the town’s police station on Wednesday night. The junta began carrying out heavy artillery attacks and airstrikes around the town the same night, injuring at least two people and damaging a number of buildings, including a church, according to a local woman currently sheltering in Taunggyi, some 50 miles to the north. She added that the intensity of the fighting took many residents by surprise. “We weren’t expecting anything like this, so we couldn’t take anything with us when we fled. The clashes erupted suddenly. I really didn’t expect the situation to escalate this much,” she said. Among those forced to flee were many who had come to Hsihseng from Loikaw, where regime and Karenni resistance forces continue to engage in heavy fighting for control of the town.

Pa-O, Karenni forces seize control of town in southern Shan State

The Pa-O National Liberation Army, a group that previously avoided clashes with the regime, raised its flag around Hsihseng on Thursday

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