February 24th, 2022
Now, fighting continues to intensify in Pekon and Moebye Townships in southern Shan State, which shares a border with Karenni State, The Karenni combined forces have called on the public to donate money for the purchase of heavy weapons.
“We need a lot of weapons and arms. The price of a bullet is around Ks-5,000-6,000. We have to spend around Ks-10 million in the whole day. We find it a bit difficult to survive if fighting is long. The availability of weapons is difficult. We cannot buy weapons easily even if we have money. So, we don’t waste weapons. We fire weapons if necessary,” an official of the Information Department of the DMO-PDF.
The military council troops are conducting intense offensive operations in Moebye and nearby areas and on the road in the west of Moebye-Demawsoe, for nine consecutive days since February 16th, using heavy weapons, tanks and jet fighters.
From February 16th to 20th, fighting killed 61 soldiers of the military council, injured many others and destroyed two armoured tanks and three military logistics vehicles loaded with weapons, according to the statement by the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) on February 22nd.
Due to the military council’s heavy shelling and airstrikes, a Karenni combined force suffered heavy losses.
The People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) need a lot of weapons as the fighting continues to intensify throughout the day. An imbalance of weapons is a problem The relevant Karenni forces on the ground have called on the public to donate money.
An information officer of the KNDF said: “We had to withdraw from the battle due to an imbalance of weapons. For instance, we cannot use even two heavy weapons when the military council can use ten heavy weapons. No one can deny the fact that every force needs the reinforcement of heavy weapons. The forces invite donations as they really need it.”
A combined forced of the Karenni Army (KA), the KNDF, the Demawsoe (DMO)-Local PDF, the Moebye PDF, Loikaw PDF, Pekon PDF, the KGZ, the Karenni Democratic Front (KDF), the JPDF, GZ-21 and other allied groups is fighting against the military council troops.
Currently, the military council troops are conducting airstrikes on the battle grounds as well as on the villages and towns.
Two civilians died on the spot as the junta troops conducted airstrikes near Nanmalkhone and nearby areas in the west of Demawsoe by two jet fighters. A house was burnt down by airstrikes.
The military conducted airstrikes although there was no fighting.
Sent by Maw Oo Myar (Kantarawaddy Times)