Battle for control of Kani ends with retreat by anti-regime forces

Resistance forces say they have abandoned an attempt to seize control of Kani, a town less than 40 miles north of Sagaing Region’s capital Monywa, after 10 days of fighting. Groups opposed to Myanmar’s military junta began attacking regime targets in the town, including its police station, general administration office, and a heavily fortified pagoda, on March 2. Although they came close to capturing it last week, the junta’s determination to hold onto the town ultimately thwarted their efforts, according to members of groups involved in the fighting. “We couldn’t take it. We had to recall all of our units,” a commander of one of the groups said on Thursday, adding that the anti-junta forces withdrew from the town two days earlier. Located on the western bank of the Chindwin River, Kani is important to the regime as a transit point for transporting weapons and ammunition to resistance strongholds north of Monywa, where the junta’s Northwestern Regional Military Command is headquartered. Anti-junta groups have long dominated in most of Kani Township’s rural villages, but it wasn’t until March 2 that they made a concerted effort to take control of its administrative centre. Within hours of the initial assault, the junta started launching airstrikes from bases in Monywa, Kalay, and Tada-U near Mandalay. At least 20 were reported on the first day of fighting alone. The regime also airlifted reinforcements into the area, allegedly including members of the Ogre Column, a junta army unit notorious for committing atrocities against civilians, as well as pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia members from neighbouring Pale Township, according to resistance sources. Although the anti-regime groups managed to maintain the upper hand through most of the first week of fighting, they were ultimately overwhelmed by the military’s show of force. “The town is in ruins now. They dropped loads of 500lb bombs from the air. People five miles away could feel the blasts, and some even lost their hearing for a while,” said a member of a local defence that took part in the fighting. The attacks also targeted nearby villages, where at least one elderly man was killed and several other civilians were injured, local sources told Myanmar Now. At one point, the resistance forces were even able to capture the army camp at Kani’s Shwe See Khon Pagoda, where junta soldiers had built bunkers and dug trenches to repel attacks. “The bunkers they built at the pagoda base were so strong even airstrikes couldn’t harm them. We had to attack them at close range,” said another resistance fighter. On March 6, audio recordings of soldiers frantically calling for backup after losing control of the camp began circulating on pro-regime Telegram channels. It was at that point that junta troops began flooding into the area. “There were more than 100 of them in the first wave and we managed to defeat them. But we weren’t able to fight off the ones who came later from the Ogre Column,” said a resistance fighter. The anti-regime groups said around 10 of their troops were killed in the fighting, while many more were injured. They say they also inflicted heavy casualties on the regime forces, but no confirmed figures were available at the time of reporting. There were also reports that a number of junta personnel had surrendered, but Myanmar Now could not independently confirm this information. Thousands of people living in the town of Kani and the surrounding area have been displaced by the fighting, local sources reported. Despite their retreat, the resistance forces say they gained a great deal from the battle for control of Kani in terms of coordination, discipline, and teamwork. “If we had been able to take control of Kani, it would have been a real blow to the regime. We’ll just have to try harder next time,” said a defence force commander.

Battle for control of Kani ends with retreat by anti-regime forces

Despite early success, resistance fighters say they could no longer withstand the junta’s overwhelming show of force after 10 days of fighting

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