Nearly 300 junta troops killed in KNU Brigade 5 territory in a single year

Nearly 300 junta troops, including an officer at the operation-commander level, were killed in armed clashes throughout 2025 in Mutraw District, where Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 5 operates, the KNU announced.

Throughout 2025, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the KNU, fought 1,113 clashes of varying intensity with junta forces in Mutraw District, causing 284 deaths and 459 injuries on the junta side, including an operation-commander, according to the KNU’s annual summary report released on January 13.

The junta’s casualties also included a battalion commander, a major, a captain, a sergeant, and a lance corporal, while the list of wounded included majors and corporals.

In addition, in 2025, battalions and units under Brigade 5 destroyed 12 of the junta’s administrative buildings. The KNU’s report did not include casualties suffered by the KNLA and allied resistance groups.

“The reason so many skirmishes happened was that the junta kept trying to retake positions it had already lost. Its troops defended themselves against our artillery and launched ground attacks, which led to constant clashes. But in reality, the regime’s influence in our territory barely extended beyond the areas around its bases,” said Lieutenant Colonel Saw Kler Doh, the spokesperson for the Brigade 5.

In 2025, junta forces carried out 222 attacks on civilian orchards, plantations, and other properties in Brigade 5 territory using airstrikes, drones, and artillery, according to the KNU. The attacks killed 8 civilians and injured 38 others.

The junta’s arbitrary attacks have not only destroyed farmlands and terrace farms but also damaged houses, schools, and religious buildings, and caused the deaths of domestic animals.