Fighting continues in Kachin State as Myanmar army advances on jade town

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 Long Hkin, clashes have continued and it appears they are making steady progress.” The KIA has not disclosed the number of casualties on either side of the fighting, and the military has not released any information about the battlefield situation in Kachin State. According to a local resident, a KIA-led alliance of forces attacked a junta hilltop outpost near Long Hkin around 3am on Monday. “Around 3 a.m., we heard the sound of small arms fire, followed by artillery shells fired from the tactical base,” the local man said. “We later learned that the shooting had occurred at the Nyein Chan Tharyar Khun Sar Kone Police Station. Later that night, we also heard gunfire coming from the Myauk Kone area, where several small junta outposts are located.” According to local residents, the battle lasted only a few minutes, but some houses in Long Hkin sustained minor damage from the shelling. On the morning of May 26, no fighting was heard in the town, and locals said they went about their day as usual, according to locals. The KIA and their allies have secured all major routes leading to Hpakant—namely the roads from Kamaing, Inn Taw Gyi, and Se Kin—trapping and isolating junta forces stationed in Hpakant. The military has been advancing into the area to regain control of the strategic roads. Fighting on these routes has forced some 3,000 local civilians to flee their homes and seek refuge in Hpakant. KIA-led fighters have captured nearly all junta outposts and villages around Hpakant, with only a few positions remaining in the military’s hands: the Lel Pyin camp at the town entrance, the Ma Zwut Yang Prison, the Kan Hsee hilltop base, the Hpakant Police Station and several villages including Long Hkin. In March of last year, just over three years after the military coup of 2021, the KIA and its allies began to ramp up their attacks on junta-held towns and other positions across Kachin State. Since the KIA launched its long-term offensive against the military, KIA-led forces 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).

Fighting continues in Kachin State as Myanmar army advances on jade town

Junta forces have come within a few miles of Hpakant, where the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and its allies now control all but a few outposts and villages held by the regime

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