Over 150 Junta Troops Killed in Strategic Karen State Town, KNU Says

More than 150 Myanmar military junta troops, including two officers, have been killed in Hpapun Township, eastern Myanmar’s Karen State, over the past three and a half months, according to the Karen National Union (KNU).

Under the KNU’s administrative structure, Hpapun falls within Mutraw District, the primary operational area of its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 5.

Since early May, junta forces have launched offensives along the Hpapun-Kamarmaung Road, deploying heavy reinforcements to secure a strategic hilltop base and retake Hpapun Town, which regime forces lost control of earlier this year.

However, ambushes and coordinated attacks by the KNLA and allied resistance forces left 152 junta soldiers dead and roughly 200 others wounded, including deputy battalion commanders, Brigade 5 reported. An additional 36 regime soldiers deserted their units during the fighting.

“Over the past few months, the enemy has tried to break through, but they have suffered heavy losses,” said Padoh Saw Htoo Robin, spokesperson for Brigade 5. “We are releasing this information so the public knows the facts.”

In response to the military setbacks, junta forces escalated airstrikes and artillery bombardment against civilian areas along the Hpapun-Kamarmaung Road, setting several villages on fire.

The indiscriminate attacks killed four civilians, injured 22 others, and damaged 275 homes, 18 schools, and five religious buildings, according to the Mutraw District administration. Nearly 36,000 residents from 27 villages have been displaced by the ongoing conflict.

Meanwhile, pro-junta social media channels have mounted an aggressive disinformation campaign, claiming heavy resistance casualties while concealing the regime's own operational losses in the region.