Battles resume in Kachin State

Battles raged in Kachin State on Friday as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and allies attacked junta bases near the China-Myanmar border while regime troops pushed into the jade-mining town of Hpakant around 100 miles to the northwest. Clashes subsided over the last two weeks after KIA-led forces seized several junta battalion bases over the last four months of fighting in Bhamo Township, as well as the airport and some urban areas. The fighting resumed with the attacks Friday, which targeted the Infantry Battalion (IB) 47 and Military Operations Command 21 (MOC-21) headquarters in Bhamo Township in the early hours of the morning, according to a source within the KIA. “The fighting in Bhamo is ongoing,” the source said on Friday. “The battle for control of the town started again around 4am this morning, with renewed assaults and around ten airstrikes reported in the area this morning.” The ten airstrikes, carried out that morning by jet fighters and Y-12 transport aircraft, served as support for the Myanmar army’s ground troops as they fended off the KIA-led attacks. “They are counterattacking now,” the KIA source said. “They slowed down for a bit but have regained their pace now. They suffered significant losses, which is why they launched several airstrikes this morning alone. The fighting is still intense.” The KIA and its allies now control the IB 236, Armoured Battalion (AB) 236, AB 366, AB 5014, and Tank Battalion 7006 bases as well as a number of security outposts captured earlier from junta forces. The anti-junta forces also hold the town of Momauk some ten miles east of Bhamo, and Mansi, some 13 miles to the south, as well as Hsin Hkan village, Bhamo Township and a strategically important bridge of the same name over the Ayeyarwady River some 20 miles southwest of Bhamo. KIA blockade, Hpakant battles Intense clashes also broke out in Hpakant Township as junta troops attempted to break through a blockade established by the KIA and its allies and regain control of major routes to the township’s urban centre. According to a local man connected to the KIA, fighting intensified near Yae Kar Tar village as a column of about 500 junta troops advanced from the town of Kamaing, some 25 miles east of Hpakant. The KIA-connected source also said that members of the Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA), an ethnic armed group allied with the junta, has joined the advancing column. “They advanced from Kamaing towards Hpakant yesterday, and heavy fighting broke out near Yae Kar Tar village throughout the day, resulting in injuries,” he said. “The column was made up of junta troops, SNA forces, and Pyu Saw Htee militia members. Their main objective is to regain control of Hpakant.” Clashes continued today, forcing civilians in the area to flee their homes. Another junta column of around 300 troops reportedly approached Hpakant from the west, towards several villages the KIA-led forces control on the Inn Taw Gyi-Hpakant road, and was intercepted by KIA forces near the town of Inn Taw Gyi, Mohnyin Township. A KIA commander and the NUG defence minister carry out an inspection near Mohnyin, Kachin State after its capture (Photo: Ministry of Defense, NUG) “Yesterday, the junta conducted six successive airstrikes in Inn Taw Gyi, targeting both the battlefield and nearby villages,” the man added. The junta has also reportedly deployed another column from Tanai Town to retake Hpakant, but details of its progress are still unclear. The KIA-led alliance has captured all junta bases on the major routes into Hpakant, including the Hpakant-Kamaing, Hpakant-Inn Taw Gyi, and Hpakant-Se Zin roads, leaving only a few outposts under junta control in Hpakant Township. “The KIA and [Kachin People’s Defence Forces] now control the routes through Hpakant, which has made it hard for the junta to deliver supplies. As a result, they’re trying to take back control,” the local, KIA-connected source said. According to residents of the area, junta forces have been firing heavy artillery from the Northern Regional Military Command headquarters in the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina, and the IB 58 base, located in Waingmaw on the other side of the Ayeyarwady River. The Chinese government has exerted pressure on the KIA and other ethnic armed organisations of the Brotherhood Alliance that carried out the yearlong Operation 1027 in northern Shan State—sometimes collectively known as the Northern Alliance—to lay down arms and agree to ceasefires with Myanmar’s military junta. While clashes have quieted elsewhere in Kachin State in recent months, Hpakant remains a hotbed of fighting, and the KIA has ramped up efforts to take Bhamo. Since launching an offensive in March last year, the KIA and allied groups have captured the town of Mabein in northern Shan State and more than a dozen towns in Kachin State: Dawthponeyan, Injangyang, Chipwe, Hpi Maw, Mansi, Momauk, Myo Hla, Pangwa (Pang War), Sadung, Sinbo, Sumprabum, Tsawlaw, and the border trade towns of Kan Paik Ti and Lwegel (Lweje or Loi Je). A KIA fighter guarding a downed junta aircraft (Photo: Myat Pan)

Battles resume in Kachin State

As fighting continues for a fourth month in Bhamo between army troops and a KIA-led alliance, the military has also advanced on Hpakant in an effort to break a junta blockade

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