Karen fighters kill 10 Burma Army soldiers

Guerilla warfare waged by Karen fighters on the Burma Army near Kawkareik Township resulted in 10 dead and injured four soldiers from the Light Infantry Battalion 202 based on the main Myawaddy-Kawkareik road.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army said its troops had on the afternoon of October 3rd attacked the Burma Army LIB 202 position on the mountain road between Myawaddy and Kawkariek, killing one and wounding three.

Sources close to the dead soldiers’ family said that the wounded soldiers were taken to the Burma Army Hospital near to the Tuangalay area of Pa-an Town.

The wife of one of the injured soldiers told to Karen News that living in an army compound is hard on families and it is their worse nightmare when their husbands are involved in fighting.

“We can’t live with what rations we are given from the army. It is not enough food to feed a family. We have to find ways to supplement our food supplies outside the army compound by selling goods or vegetables. Even then, it is hardly enough to cover our basic food supplies. Now my husband has been wounded – I don’t know what I am going to do to survive.”

Hospital officials say one of the three wounded soldiers wounded is in a serious condition with five bullets in his chest and it is highly unlikely he will survive.

In coordinated attacks on the same day combined Karen fighters attacked a number of Burma Army positions.

Major San Aung, a spokeperson for the DKBA confirmed to Karen News that on the same day a combined force from the KNLA Battalion 101 and the DKBA’s Klo Htoo Wah Tactical Command attacked a second group of soldiers from the Burma Army’s LIB 202 on the Myawaddy-Kawkariek road, killing six and wounding one.

“We attacked at about noon time and the fighting lasted for about one and a half hours. We killed six of our enemy killed and wounded one – we suffered no losses.”

The Burma Army LIB 202 is under the command of Division 22 and headquartered at Pa-an Town.

It is not know what the exact troop strength the DKBA used to ambush the Burma Army soldiers, Karen community leaders say in recent months the combined forces of the KNLA and DKBA have been exacting a heavy toll on the Burma Army.

According to statistics, collected by the Karen National Union, from 1st January to 30th June 2011, the KNLA and the Burma Army fought 793 times. The KNLA killed 740 Burmese soldiers and wounded another 998. The Burmese army killed eight KNLA soldiers and wounded eight.

The Burma Army is fighting on fronts in Shan, Kachin, Karenni and Karen States.

A KNLA senior officer has been reported as saying it is important that ethnic armies work together against the Burma Army.

“Recently we formed the UNFC (United Nationalities Federal Council), even though all the [ethnic] groups are not on the committee we all have an understanding. All the ethnic people of Burma have a common cause – we are fighting for our land, our language, our cultural and our survival.”