DKBA attack Burma Army Tax Gates
In retaliation for a state controlled newspaper report that declared the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army was extinct, DKBA fighters attacked three different tollgates under the control of the Burma Army in Kawkareik Town, Karen State late last week.
The attacks happened in the afternoon and were led by the DKBA’s Klo Htoo Wah unit and targeted the Burma Army’s Infantry Battalion 355 tax gates at Yan Kote, Lower Bo Ter, and Thitchauk Pin about one mile from Kawkareik Town.
The DKBA’s Major San Aung said there were as many as 20 to 30 Burmese soldiers at each gate and the hour-long skirmish did not incur any casualties for the DKBA..
“We attacked the Burma Army because of recent comments in the government’s newspapers that mentioned that ‘there was no longer any DKBA’.”
Major San Aung it was the first attack by DKBA since they announced their recent military and political restructuring of their organization.
Last week another 30 soldiers deserted from the Myaing Gyi Ngu area Border Guard Force and joined forces with the DKBA’s Major Saw Beeh. The breakaway soldiers were under the leadership of Major Soe Naing commander of BGF Battalion 1011 and Major Maung Chit commander of BGF Battalion 1014.
A statement by the Kayin State Democracy and Development Party ran in the state run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, recently claimed the DKBA was finished as it had been formed into a Border Guard Force in accord with the 2008 constitution.
The media statement from the KSDDP’s declared that “there is no more DKBA” – the recent attacks by the DKBA forces clearly demonstrates that this is not the case.
