1,500 Myanmar junta soldiers killed in Kayah State fighting rebels

Around 1,500 Myanmar junta soldiers have been killed in the last 15 months in Kayah State in southeast Myanmar, while over 150 guerrilla fighters have died in combat with regime forces in the same area.

Heavy firefights and massive air and artillery strikes have been reported almost daily in Kayah since the beginning of armed resistance against military rule in May of last year, Myanmar and Southeast Asia-based news outlet The Irrawaddy reported.

A human rights organisation, "The Progressive Karenni People Force (PKPF)," has said that 1,499 regime soldiers and 151 resistance fighters were killed in Kayah up to August 31, while there were 454 firefights in the same period.

The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF), the Karenni Army (KA) – the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party – and several People's Defense Forces (PDF) are fighting the junta across Kayah, as well as in townships in neighboring southern Shan State,

Some 158 airstrikes were carried out by the junta on both civilian targets and resistance forces.

PKPF also said that 261 civilians and 61 internally displaced persons in Kayah were killed by the military regime over the last 15 months. Another 261 people were arrested by the junta.

Air and artillery strikes by the regime, as well as attacks with fire, destroyed 1,180 homes and 25 religious buildings in the state.

Currently, around 200,000 people are displaced in Kayah. IDPs in the state are now facing food shortages as the regime has blocked supply routes.

According to the Central Region Special Operation Group, which is joining resistance attacks against regime forces in Kayah, 61 junta troops were killed by combined resistance forces including the KNDF, KA, and PDFs between August 16 and 31 during 14 ambushes in Kayah.

An officer and six snipers were among the 61 killed, the resistance group added.

The junta has sent a lot of troops to Kayah, where they keep raiding villages and groups of rebels.

But regime forces lose people every day in fights with the PDF and ethnic armed groups in Kayah and all over Myanmar.