Battles continued Monday in a village outside of the jade-producing town of Hpakant, Kachin State as around 600 regime troops approached from several directions in a counteroffensive against Kachin anti-junta fighters, locals said.
The heaviest clashes took place in the villages of Long Hkin and Nam Ting a few miles east of the town.
A junta column approaching from a base in Kamaing—around 40 miles east of Hpakant—set out towards Hpakant last month and clashed repeatedly with the arti-junta armed group Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on the Hpakant-Kamaing road before reaching Nam Ting on Monday.
According to KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu, some troops had also reached as far as Long Hkin village, some five miles west of Nam Ting.
“The column that approached from Kamaing has now come into the vicinity of Hpakant,” Col. Naw Bu said on Monday. “Since reaching. . .
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