Chin forces, allies seize strategic town from Myanmar military after long battle

An alliance of mostly Chin anti-junta armed groups claims to have captured the town of Kyindwe in Kanpetlet Township, Chin State on Monday after months of fighting. A town of about 200 households, Kyindwe is located some 17 miles southwest of Kanpetlet. Having initiated assaults on the town in December 2023 with the aim of seizing full control by Christmas, the joint Chin forces confronted unexpected difficulties and incurred significant losses in their four-month battle against the Myanmar military. Before the Chin armed groups’ victory, around 200 junta troops, police, and junta-allied militia members were stationed at a police station near the bank of the Mone Creek and at the school next door. Many civilians are known to support the military council in the town. As a stronghold for pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militias—which are recruited, armed, and trained by the military—Kyindwe proved more difficult to take over than the Chin anti-junta fighters anticipated, according to an anti-junta battalion commander who took part in the battle. “Every house in town has a trench dug in the backyard,” the battalion commander said, referring to makeshift bomb shelters prepared in accordance with the military council’s instructions. “We also saw that several houses were set up with defences to fire back at us.” The forces that wrested Kyindwe from the junta’s grasp included several battalions of the Chinland Defence Forces of Kanpetlet (CDF-Kanpetlet) and People’s Defence Forces (PDF). However, the struggle for the town “took longer than expected” due to the disparity in firepower, according to Chin commanders. “We couldn’t engage with them as efficiently as planned because we didn’t have enough ammunition, weapons, or tactical artillery systems,” said Salai Tun Lai Htan, a CDF Kanpetlet brigade commander. Area where junta forces were stationed in Kyindwe before the anti-junta forces took control of the town (Supplied) The Arakan Army (AA)—the largest and most powerful ethnic armed organisation in Rakhine State—and other allies joined the battle starting on March 7, fighting alongside the CDF, PDF, and other Chin groups under the name “Chin Brothers” to seize Kyindwe. The Chin Brothers alliance reportedly includes members of the CDF-Kanpetlet, Zomi Federal Union, Chin National Defence Force, Maraland Defence Force/Maraland Territorial Council, and Brigade 1 of the Chinland Defence Forces (CDF) based in Matupi, Chin State. The Chin Brothers released an official statement in April of this year announcing their plans to form an alliance with the AA. Myanmar Now attempted to reach the AA’s spokesperson Khaing Thukha for comment regarding the armed organisation’s involvement in capturing Kyindwe, but received no response. The AA has also captured Paletwa Township in Chin State, but has yet to release any public statement regarding clashes in Kanpetlet Township. Members of PDF battalions based in Gangaw and Minbu districts, as well as two AA allies—the Yaw Defence Force and Generation Z Army—also reportedly took part in the battle on the side of the Chin anti-junta groups. Kyindwe, which consists of four wards and had an estimated population of 1,000 as of 2019, was first recognised as a town and upgraded from its status as a village under the civilian government of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party in December 2018. The town is strategically important due to its location only a few miles from the town of Saw, Magway Region and the border with northern Rakhine State. Control of the town affords easy access by road to the No. 2 Defence Equipment Factory in Saw Township, as well as to Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw townships in northern Rakhine state, which are currently under the control of the AA. “There are defence equipment factories just 30 or 40 miles from here. That’s why the junta and militias didn’t give up the town easily. It poses a major threat to them if we can easily get to Rakhine and Chin states,” said the battalion commander who took part in the battle. Anti-junta forces outside of a Kyindwe police station after its capture (Supplied) “The military even airdropped reinforcements and bombed the area using two kinds of aircraft—both fighter jets and Y-12 aircraft,” he added. “They’d fly in three jets each time, then drop around 50 bombs from the Y-12. That happened four or five times a day and at one point, you could see aircraft in the sky at any time of day.” The junta air force nearly destroyed the town in its attempts to keep it from falling into the hands of the anti-junta alliance, according to the battalion commander. “There’s barely anything left of the town, and we haven’t even swept for landmines yet, which is a devil of a problem in itself,” he said. “Nearly all the houses in the town were badly damaged or destroyed by the bombing.” Location of Kyindwe The military airdropped almost 500 reinforcement troops in three waves, but less than 100 of them were ultimately able to reach the town as anti-junta forces intercepted the rest. Some of those troops that reached Kyindwe were killed in the battle, while most of the rest retreated towards the junta-controlled defence equipment factory in Saw Township. The last remaining junta troops withdrew from the town on Monday, leaving it open for the anti-junta forces to take full control. The allied groups were able to take a few soldiers prisoner after entering the town. The anti-junta alliance acknowledged some casualties on its own side but did not release a statement with an exact count. According to sources who spoke to Myanmar Now, there were dozens of injuries on the anti-junta side from the fierce fighting as well as from landmines. Some of the casualties were due to the junta’s use of machine guns, frequent airstrikes, and powerful, 500-pound bombs during the battle, the same sources said. The junta air force also attacked medical facilities suspected of providing treatment to the anti-junta fighters during the battle. An elderly patient was killed in a junta airstrike on a clinic in Londwe village, Kanpetlet Township, while another airstrike on the Wammathu (Vawmm’tu) Hospital in Mindat Township killed four patients and a patient chaperone. Anti-junta forces have now captured the towns of Rihkawdar, Lailenpi, and Rezua in Chin State as well as abandoned junta bases in Hnaring, M’kuiimnu, and Webula. Junta forces have retained control of the state capital, Hakha, as well as the state’s urban centres such as Mindat.

Chin forces, allies seize strategic town from Myanmar military after long battle

The anti-junta alliance reportedly suffered heavy casualties as the military resorted to increasingly frequent airstrikes and the use of machine guns and 500-pound bombs to keep control of Kyindwe in Chin State’s Kanpetlet Township

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