Fighting that began after the regime’s major offensive against a coalition of armed resistance groups last week continued this week in southern Shan State near the border with Karenni State.

A frontline soldier with the Demawso People’s Defence Force (PDF) told SHAN that many Burma Army (BA) soldiers were killed in Pekon Township on Sunday, the day junta fighter jets bombed the civilian armed groups’ positions and paratroopers were dispatched.

Other PDFs from Pekon, Mobye and Loikaw, as well as the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force and the Karenni Army, are also facing off against the BA.

The Demawso PDF fighter said up to 30 BA soldiers were killed in the fighting and many more injured. 20 Karenni fighters died and many were wounded around Mobye between 17 and 20 February.

After suffering heavy casualties, the junta soldiers attacked Warisu Palai and Wee Thae Kuu with artillery, torching houses and laying numerous landmines along the road. At least 10,000 civilians who fled the fighting are in need of emergency aid.

SHAN couldn’t independently confirm this information. Another PDF fighter said: ”Our weapons are much worse than those of BA and we need financial support to get better guns.”

The resistance fighters don’t even have enough weapons for all their soldiers and the ones they have are old. They’re fighting the BA, who’re attacking them with airstrikes, artillery fire, tank munitions and armoured vehicles.