A joint force of troops belonging to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF) overran a Myanmar army camp in Kachin State’s Sumprabum Township on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for the Kachin ethnic armed organisation.
In the early morning, the resistance allies ambushed the military post at the bridge over Daru Hka—the Daru stream—around 120km east of Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, but did not capture the site until the afternoon.
“We had to fight a lot. Their camp has been seized and burned,” said KIA information officer Col Naw Bu.
The number of soldiers killed was not known at the time of reporting.
“We were able to capture the camp, so there were casualties, I think. But I can’t say how many of them we captured and how many of them died,” Col Naw Bu continued, adding that most of the troops stationed at the camp had fled.
Local news outlets reported that 10 junta soldiers were killed and one officer taken prisoner. Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the claims.
The targeted camp was particularly strategic due its location guarding the bridge, and on the road connecting Myitkyina with Putao to the north.
Also on Wednesday, another joint KIA-PDF force launched a barrage of heavy artillery at a junta checkpoint manned by soldiers and policemen outside of the entrance to the town of Hpakant near the Pantin bridge. They quickly retreated following the attack.
“[The KIA and PDF] fired and then withdrew, and it was only after their retreat that the junta troops began shooting,” a man from Hpakant with ties to the PDF explained.
Residents in the area said that some of the resistance forces’ shells exploded near the checkpoint, and speculated that there may have been casualties, but Myanmar Now was unable to confirm whether there had been any deaths.
The KIA and PDF used drones to attack a junta-allied militia camp nearly 60km east of Hpakant on Wednesday as well. As in the other strikes that day, it is not known if any soldiers were killed.
The KIA, which is active in Kachin State and northern Shan State, gave military training to those in the region, as well as in upper Sagaing, who wanted to resist the junta after the 2021 military coup. The ethnic armed organisation has said it would cooperate with all groups committed to fighting the military dictatorship.
Around 1,000 Myanmar army soldiers were sent to the village of Nam San Yang along the Myitkyina-Bhamo road in early July, and have launched offensives targeting the KIA, whose headquarters are around 20km away in Laiza, on the Chinese border.
