KNLA demolishes DKBA’s bulldozer and excavator
by Daniel Pedersen on Sep.29, 2009, under Battles, Burma reportage, The Karen
Two DKBA soldiers killed, two seriously wounded in daring operation
MIZZIMA
Mae Sot, ThailandSeptember 29, 2009
A special KNLA squad, formed from Sixth Brigade’s 201 and 103 battalions, took construction machines out with two kilograms of TNT - Photo: Steve Sandford
A demolition operation by the Karen National Liberation Army has destroyed a D6 Caterpillar bulldozer and a 20-tonne excavator near the village of Ta-ah Tah, Karen State, Burma
The special KNLA squad, formed from Sixth Brigade’s 201 and 103 battalions, took the machines out with two kilograms of TNT.
The depot is on the western side of the southern reaches of the Dawna Mountain Range, about five days’ walk from the Burmese border town of Myawaddy.
KNLA forward scouts strapped the explosives beneath the engines and remotely detonated them at 1am on September 21.
Soldiers of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a militia allied with the Burma Army, gave chase after the explosions rocked their depot.
The KNLA soldiers evaded their pursuers, from the DKBA’s 907 Battalion, for more than two hours, and then led them into a claymore booby trap, killing two and seriously wounding another two.
The earthmoving machines were being used to build a new military road.
The D6 Caterpillar was estimated to be worth about three million Thai baht and the excavator two million baht.
They were the only two machines stationed at the depot.
DKBA Battalion 907 was instrumental in the offensive against KNLA Seventh Brigade during June and July this year that forced more than 5,000 Karen civilians across the Thai border.
Battalion 907 has since been deployed to the Sixth Brigade region.
The formation of a demolition squad specifically to destroy the machines would seem to be an extension of Karen National Union Vice President David Thackrabaw’s declaration earlier this year that the KNLA had to start operating “deep behind enemy lines”.
The KNLA has endured serious territorial losses in the past 12 months.
ENDS
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