Another military base falls to KIA-led forces in Myanmar’s north

Fighters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and allied organisations captured a strategically important army base in Tanai Township northwest of the Kachin State capital on Thursday morning. Taking over the base—called Nam Byu—has given the KIA effective control over the area’s amber and gold deposits. “There are gold and amber mines in Nam Byu and Nam Hkam Par, so it’s a base of great economic importance. It’s also important for exercising effective control over the KIA’s Battalion 14 territory,” said KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu. The Nam Byu base is 12 miles southwest of the town of Tanai, and some 75 miles northwest of the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina. Junta forces took control of it in 2018 and began collecting taxes from gold and amber mining companies that had come to the area seeking business. Some 70 army troops of infantry battalions (IB) 260 and 297 were stationed at the base before the KIA and their allies captured it. The KIA and other anti-junta fighters attacked the base continuously for a week before taking over. The number of casualties sustained by either side is unconfirmed. Fighting is ongoing in other parts of Kachin State. Earlier this month, the KIA initiated a series of attacks on junta forces in Momauk and Mansi townships, located in southern Kachin State near the Shan State border. After a brief pause in fighting, the KIA resumed its offensive and took over both townships last week. The group has continued to assault the junta’s light infantry battalion (LIB) 437 base near Momauk and the LIB 601 and 319 bases near Mansi. The military has reportedly increased its rate of artillery shelling and conducted at least one airstrike in Momauk Township, according to a civilian in his 40s from Bhamo. “There wasn’t much shooting in the past few days, but the fighting started again this morning and hasn’t stopped,” he said on Friday. Fighting has already forced inhabitants of Momauk and Mansi townships to flee en masse to villages near the town of Bhamo, leaving both townships sparsely populated. Skirmishes have also broken out near Putao, the administrative seat of Myanmar’s northernmost district, after the KIA took over the town of Sumprabum. According to a local source, civilians and regime administrators have fled the town in anticipation that the fighting will escalate, but Col. Naw Bu claims that no serious battles have taken place yet. “We have only received word that an enemy column of 100 troops left Putao, heading towards Sumprabum. We have intercepted them since then and delayed their advance,” the KIA spokesperson said. Members of other armed organisations, including the Arakan Army and Karenni People’s Defence Forces, have reportedly fought alongside the KIA against junta forces in Kachin State. Since April, Kachin-led fighters have taken control of the northern Shan State town of Mabein, as well as the Kachin State towns of Injangyang, Sinbo, Sumprabum, and Lwegel, a trade hub on the China-Myanmar border.

Another military base falls to KIA-led forces in Myanmar’s north

Fighting continued throughout Kachin State as the powerful ethnic armed organisation and its allies took over Nam Byu base in Tanai Township after six years of junta control

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