Three members of the anti-junta resistance were killed in a battle with the Myanmar army after the Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO) and the Palaw Township People’s Defence Force attempted a joint attack on a military unit in the Tanintharyi Region township on Wednesday. 

The KNDO—an armed wing of the Karen National Union—and the Palaw PDF had planned to ambush around 20 soldiers occupying a monastery in the village of Pa Wut Kone, eight miles south of Palaw town, at 5am. 

However, the junta troops at the site appeared to have been tipped off about the operation and began a counter-attack before resistance fighters were in position, a spokesperson for the Palaw PDF told Myanmar Now. A seven-hour battle reportedly followed. 

“I think the information that we were coming was leaked to the junta. They were waiting for us to arrive and started firing at us before we could start attacking them,” he said. “The clash escalated after that.” 

The casualties included Hpa Aye, the KNDO’s 37-year-old squad commander; an 18-year-old private in the ethnic armed organisation whose name was not confirmed at the time of reporting; and Saw Bwar, a 20-year-old member of the Palaw PDF.

“All three of the men were killed by sniper fire,” the PDF spokesperson said. 

He explained that the commander was shot in the pelvis and the KNDO private in the head, while the PDF member was fatally struck in the thigh and head as he had attempted to drag the private’s body out of the battle zone.

In response to the guerrilla-style attack, the military sent some 100 troop reinforcements from the Palaw-based Infantry Battalion 285 to Pa Wut Kone, and deployed guards around the village. 

There were several clashes between the military and resistance forces in Palaw Township in early 2022, including in Pa Wut Kone. 

A former information minister close to the military becomes the latest to condemn the regime’s campaign of wholesale destruction in Upper Myanmar 

A previous raid on Mone Hla, the village in Khin-U Township where the Catholic Archbishop of Yangon was born, reportedly targeted a local church

The resistance column said in its statement that it had suffered no casualties in the incident and had torched three buildings in Htamin Ma Sar where regime forces had been stationed.

At the time of reporting, the military had not released any information on recent clashes in southern Myanmar. 

In a separate statement published on Friday, the Crocodile Column explained that it, as a coalition, was borne “out of necessity on the ground,” and intended to unify anti-junta defence forces in Tanintharyi. It also noted that it would abide by policies imposed by the NUG.

Throughout the nearly two years since the February 2021 coup, Tanintharyi Region, which has a heavy military presence, has seen several clashes between regime forces and local guerrilla groups. 

However, the Crocodile Column described Thursday’s operation as the first in which several area resistance forces had collaborated on a single mission.