Clashes escalate near Myanmar military’s top training city

Regime forces launched a counteroffensive late last week east of Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region, aiming to recapture villages occupied by anti-junta fighters near the town and create a defensive buffer against their attacks. The villages, located in Nawnghkio Township, northern Shan State just over the border with Mandalay Region, are currently under the control of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). Serving as the location of the Myanmar military’s premier officer training facilities, Pyin Oo Lwin is vulnerable to potential assaults by the TNLA from the neighbouring villages, which include Tawng Hkam on the road to Lawksawk (Yatsauk), southern Shan State as well as Thea Khaw and Gant Gaw, both located on the Mandalay-Lashio Road. On Friday afternoon, junta troops advanced into Gant Gaw village, causing a battle to break out with TNLA-led forces stationed there. Information on the number of casualties and extent of damage caused by the fighting is not yet available. The Myanmar army has been attempting to retake the base camp in Gant Gaw since losing it to the TNLA and its allies on October 28. Due to its location, Gant Gaw serves as a gateway to Pyin Oo Lwin from the east, and the junta forces fought fiercely to defend it before the TNLA seized it, according to a source close to the Ta'ang ethnic armed group. “The main priority is to protect Pyin Oo Lwin. Nawnghkio and Gant Gaw serve as defensive buffers for the town. Gant Gaw is a key position, acting as a barrier to potential attacks on Pyin Oo Lwin from both Mogok and Nawnghkio,” he explained. He added that the day before the junta’s ground forces attacked, the military had launched airstrikes on Gant Gaw on Thursday morning, destroying several civilian homes. “About ten houses were destroyed. They deployed fighter jets to attack the area. Late in the afternoon today, the junta infantry columns advanced,” the TNLA-connected source said on Friday. The military attacked residential areas repeatedly the previous week, according to the same source. An airstrike on Nawnghkio Township’s Tha Pyay Ward on October 27 resulted in the death of a 60-year-old man, left a woman in her 50s injured, and destroyed three homes. According to local sources, 16 people including 12 prisoners of war had been killed and around 60 were injured the previous week when the junta launched airstrikes on a Mandalay Region People’s Defence Force (MDY-PDF) outpost on October 28 and 29. As clashes have spread closer to Pyin Oo Lwin, the junta has been strengthening its defences around the town in an attempt to protect its elite officer training facilities—the Defence Services Academy (DSA) and Defence Services Technological Academy—located in the town. Civilian residents of Pyin Oo Lwin said they had seen new trenches and bunkers constructed around the checkpoint at a military-owned steel plant near the DSA, and that the military had erected sealed bunker towers opposite the Electric Engineering Corps base, and more bunkers at police stations. Locals also said they had seen junta soldiers and members of the Pyu Saw Htee—militias made up of pro-junta civilians armed and trained by the junta—at the 16-mile checkpoint on the Mandalay-Pyin Oo Lwin road. Junta personnel have also been conducting vehicle searches at a checkpoint in front of the Police Officer Training School along the Mandalay-Pyin Oo Lwin road, according to Pyin Oo Lwin residents. They added that authorities had cancelled the hot air balloon festival, an annual tradition celebrating the Buddhist holidays of Tazaungdaing. “Around this time last year, the field for the hot air balloon festival was being cleared, and vendors were setting up their stalls,” a woman living in the town said. “But now, no one is making preparations. The area looks deserted. The festival won’t take place because the situation isn’t good.” Amid the ongoing clashes, passage is restricted for any vehicles travelling from Pyin Oo Lwin to northern Shan State—including freight trucks, passenger vans, private vehicles, and motorcycles—starting from the checkpoint at the eastern exit to the town. The TNLA led the capture of hundreds of junta bases during the first phase of the Operation 1027 offensive, which began in late October 2023, as well as several towns, including Namkham, Manton, Namtu, Kutkai, Namhsan, Monglon, and Mongngawt. Fighting between the TNLA and military came to a halt in January according to the terms of a Chinese government-brokered ceasefire. However, after clashes resumed in June of this year, the TNLA continued capturing territory from the military, including the towns of Nawnghkio, Kyaukme, and Mongmit in northern Shan State and the town of Mogok in Mandalay Region.

Clashes escalate near Myanmar military’s top training city

The army is trying to retake villages in northern Shan State’s Nawnghkio Township to shield the the country’s premier military academies in the nearby hill town of Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region

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