Hpapun, 4 October
Nearly 40 soldiers were killed in 84 clashes between the two rivals in KNU’s Hpapun District in Karen state in September.
The KNU Brigade 5 said that the junta army and Border Guard Force (BGF) clashed with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), killing 39 junta soldiers and injuring 46 others, including two captains, according to the statement.
Five comrades of the KNLA lost their lives, and 13 others sustained injuries in the battle.
The regime forces fired 20 rounds of artillery shells into Thwar Kho Law village, and an elderly woman was killed by shrapnel while the junta army shot a Hpapun resident to death, said the KNU.
On 15 September, the three helicopter gunships strafed the villages of Kawyo Baw Htaw, Thay Thu Khee, Dae Boe No, Tar Khe De, Gae Yu De, Dwe Low, and Htee Kaw Htar in Hpapun District’s Luthaw Township 10 times, and the regime forces also used 23 cluster bombs weighing more than 500 pound each.
The military council’s airstrike killed three boys and girls under the age of 15, a school committee member from Htee Kaw Htar Secondary School, and injured a total of eight people, including students, teachers, and villagers, destroying two religous buildings, classrooms, and 12 houses and killing five livestock animals.
The junta army stepped up air strikes and artillery shelling targeting civilians, forcing more than 90,000 people in Hpapun of KNU Brigade 5 area to flee their homes, according to the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN).
News-Than Lwin Times
Photo-KNU