Myanmar’s military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) clashed repeatedly last Friday, resulting in heavy losses for both sides, according to KIA information officer Col Naw Bu.
Most of the fighting took place north of Kachin State’s Indawgyi Lake as a column of junta troops made its way to Hpakant Township, he said.
The column was attacked twice—once near the village of Maw Gon Lon at around 2pm and again about two hours later near Hseng Taung, another village in the area.
Naw Bu said he could not disclose details as to the numbers of dead and wounded, but reported that they were substantial.
He added that the military later carried out an airstrike on a KIA base located on the border between Mogaung and Hpakant townships.
No casualties were reported in that attack, he said.
The base is run by the KIA’s Battalion 44, which overran two military outposts in Kahnyinmyaing, a village in Mogaung Township, earlier in the day, according to Naw Bu.
The Battalion 44 troops, who are under the command of KIA Brigade 9, briefly occupied the two outposts but withdrew about two hours later when they came under attack from helicopters, he said.
“We left after destroying the bases. We didn’t stay there,” he told Myanmar Now, adding that casualty figures from those clashes were also unavailable.
The military released a statement on Friday saying that around 100 KIA troops and members of the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF) attacked the two outposts, operated by Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 383 and LIB 384, at 3am that day.
The resistance forces “ran away in a panic” when the military retaliated for the attacks, the statement added.
It also said that Brig-Gen Myat Thet Oo, who heads the military’s Northern Regional Command, travelled to the area to meet with troops from LIB 384.
Asked about media reports that the attacks were carried out jointly by KIA and PDF forces, Naw Bu said he had received no such information.
“It’s possible that the ‘PDF forces’ in question are local defence forces under our command,” he said, without elaborating.
The fighting on Friday came a day after KIA Battalion 6, also under the command of Brigade 9, and around 100 troops from the army’s Light Infantry Division 33 clashed near the village of Wai Hka Hmaw in Hpakant.
The military fired several rounds of artillery during that exchange. One shell reportedly hit a nearby jade mine, killing one civilian and injuring two others.
In Hseng Taung, one of the villages affected by the clashes on Friday, residents said the situation was calm at the moment, but added that most people were remaining in their homes to avoid contact with patrolling army troops.
“It has calmed down this morning, but the people of Hseng Taung have decided not to go out anyway,” said one villager who spoke to Myanmar Now on Saturday.
