Kayah Resistance: 797 Myanmar Junta Troops Killed Last Year
By The Irrawaddy 7 January 2023
The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) and its resistance allies claim to have killed almost 800 Myanmar junta soldiers in Kayah and Shan states last year.
The KNDF, Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party, and several resistance groups have been fighting the regime since May 2021 when hundreds of peaceful anti-regime demonstrators were killed across the country.
Clashes have spilled over into southern Shan State.
The KNDF said on Friday that it engaged in 341 clashes with the regime in 2022, in which 797 junta troops were killed and 93 injured.
It said 65 KNDF fighters were killed.
The junta conducted over 150 airstrikes and shelling attacks on resistance forces and civilian targets, the armed group said.
At least 13 civilians were killed and 64 injured, 72 civilian houses and four religious buildings, including a Buddhist temple, were destroyed, according to the KNDF.
The resistance group claimed to have captured 11 regime soldiers, along with 40 weapons in the clashes and seven soldiers defected to the KNDF.
The KNDF vowed to keep fighting until the dictatorship fell.
By last month 544 clashes had broken out with Karenni resistance groups, in which 1,692 regime troops and 211 resistance fighters were killed since the 2021 coup, according to the Progressive Karenni People Force rights group that monitors junta atrocities.
It said 293 civilians had been killed by the regime and 126 displaced civilians died fleeing their homes.
A total of 1,309 houses and other buildings were destroyed, the rights group said.
