Kachin State
Junta soldiers and police officers abandoned three strategically important bases in Kachin State earlier this week, according to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
The regime forces left the bases—in the village of Gway Htaw, at the 16-mile marker near the village of Zwut Mai Yang, and in the town of Injangyang—without a fight, KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu told Myanmar Now. “They left on their own and we haven’t clashed with them there at all,” he said.
Dr. Tu Hkaung, the environment minister for the civilian National Unity Government, wrote on Facebook that civil servants had also fled Injangyang. A local woman noted that the only junta base left in the area now is the one near Tang Hpe, a village on the Myitkyina-Sumprabum highway.
All three abandoned military bases usually hosts hundreds of soldiers and were of great military importance because of their location inside KIA Brigade 1 territory, according to a local Kachin news outlet.
Rakhine State
The Arakan Army (AA) reported that heavy fighting continued on Tuesday in Pauktaw, a town near the Rakhine State capital Sittwe, and accused the military of using residents as human shields.
According to the group, the junta deployed fighter jets to conduct four airstrikes—three in the morning and one in the afternoon. The town also came under heavy artillery fire from junta soldiers stationed in Sittwe and from a nearby military vessel. An attack helicopter was also used to drop bombs, a resident reported.
Fighting has damaged some telecommunication towers, disrupting telephone service to Pauktaw. Residents said that phone lines are only functional in certain areas.
There were also reports that two civilian vessels operating between Kyauktaw in Rakhine State and Paletwa Township in Chin State vanished along with their crews on Monday. The next day, the regime claimed that they had been seized by the AA, which has not released a statement on the matter.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that more than 20,000 people had been forced to flee the fighting in Pauktaw Township.
Sagaing Region
People’s Defence Force (PDF) battalions based in Shwebo District engaged in an hour-long shootout with junta troops stationed at a high school and a hospital in Taze Township on Tuesday evening, according to a PDF member who took part in the clashes.
Around 150 junta soldiers, police officers, and Pyu Saw Htee members are currently based in Taze, which is a frequent target of local PDF groups.
After the incident, the soldiers from the hospital and the high school retreated to the town’s police station and football field, where other junta troops are stationed. Pro-junta media reported that none of the regime forces were injured. A PDF member said that one resistance fighter was killed.
Taze has long been under a curfew and has not had electricity or water for nearly two months. Most of the town’s population has fled to nearby villages, according to a resident.
Four Phyu Saw Htee members, including a former Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lawmaker named Myint Aung, were captured by PDF troops at a school in Htan Ta Pin, a village in Tamu Township, on Tuesday. Two were shot the next day while trying to escape, but other two, including Myint Aung, the leader of the group, are still alive and in custody.
Tamu Township, which borders India, is regarded as a resistance stronghold, but some pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militiamen are active in and around the township’s administrative centre.
Shan State
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) attacked a column of around 100 junta soldiers in Hsipaw on Wednesday during efforts to repair the Kyin Thi bridge, which had been blown up by anti-regime forces on November 12 to prevent the military sending reinforcements from the Northeastern Regional Military Command in Lashio to the Kokang region. A junta artillery unit based in nearby Kyaukme opened fire in response to the attack.
TNLA troops also launched an attack on a junta base near Namkham on Wednesday morning, resulting in a battle that lasted until noon. A day earlier, the group attacked the military’s Meng Kyat base in Lashio Township. According to a TNLA statement, the military responded by dropping more than 40 bombs over the course of eight airstrikes.
