Fighting intensifies north of Myanmar’s second-largest city

Resistance forces carried out attacks on junta positions just north of Mandalay over the weekend, bringing their ongoing anti-junta offensive closer to Myanmar’s second-largest city. According to sources, the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (MDY-PDF) and its local allies launched assaults near two villages less than 20 miles north of the city’s northern outskirts in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township on Sunday. “The clashes started at around 4am in Kyauk Ta Dar with an attack on troops stationed at the village monastery. The military started carrying out airstrikes from around 10am and continued through the day,” said a local man who fled the fighting. Fighting was also reported near the village of Aungthapye, where the MDY-PDF targeted several hundred junta troops stationed at a cement factory. “We could hear both light and heavy weapons being fired from early morning until afternoon. Our entire village has had to flee,” a resident of the village told Myanmar Now on Monday. Clashes were also reported near the cement factory in May. A 65-year-old man named Tin Hla was killed in the area by junta artillery fire on May 29, sources there said. According to a woman helping displaced villagers, a pregnant woman from Kyauk Ta Dar was hit by shrapnel during Sunday’s airstrikes. Getting medical assistance remains difficult due to the ongoing clashes, she added. “There haven’t as many air attacks today, but they went on all day yesterday, from morning until night. Today, we’re only hearing small arms fire,” she said on Monday. She added that junta troops have sealed off the town of Madaya, the township’s administrative centre, trapping residents and preventing anyone from entering. “They’re waiting in vehicles near the bridge. If anyone approaches them, they’ll be shot,” said the woman. The MDY-PDF has stepped up its attacks since late last month as part of the second wave of Operation 1027, an anti-regime offensive launched late last year by the Brotherhood Alliance. Since that offensive resumed in late June following the collapse of a Chinese-brokered ceasefire, the MDY-PDF has fought alongside the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an alliance member, in northern Shan State and Mandalay Region. In a statement released last Friday, the MDY-PDF said that it had captured the North Tannga outpost in Madaya Township, seizing weapons and ammunition. The regime has not released any statement on fighting in the area since July 10, when it accused resistance forces of killing and injuring a number of civilians during attacks on military positions. While fighting continues in Mandalay Region, it has been temporarily halted in neighbouring Shan State due to a ceasefire declared by the TNLA and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, a fellow Brotherhood Alliance member, on Sunday. That ceasefire, which is set to last until Thursday, was imposed to avoid creating any disturbances along the Chinese border during an important meeting of Communist Party leaders being held in Beijing this week. As fighting moves closer to Mandalay, the regime has tightened security around the city, according to local residents.

Fighting intensifies north of Myanmar’s second-largest city

Clashes continue near Mandalay despite a temporary ceasefire imposed by anti-regime forces in neighbouring Shan State

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