NAYPYITAW, 07 November 2021, (TON): Battles between anti-junta resistance groups and the Myanmar army have been intensifying in Pekhon—a geographically strategic southern Shan State township bordering Kayah (Karenni) State—since late October.”

Local People’s Defence Force (PDF) members believe that a massive military operation is underway to quell growing armed resistance movements in the area because of Pekhon’s location next to Pinlaung Township, through which anti-junta forces can access the military’s capital of Naypyitaw.

On October 22, the PDF killed five junta personnel in an ambush on the base of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 336 in downtown Pekhon, The attack triggered retaliation from junta forces and more clashes with the PDF.

The army’s Military Operations Command (MOC) No. 7 and troops from LIB 336 have set up bases on a hill in Pekhon that is surrounded by civilian communities.

Since October 27, they have increasingly been firing artillery shells into these civilian areas and sending reinforcements troops to Pekhon, resistance groups and locals said.

A spokesperson for the Pekhon PDF told media that the group had received intel suggesting that the military was planning a major operation in Pekhon.