Kachin forces capture military camp outside jade-rich town of Hpakant

Joint forces belonging to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Kachin Region People’s Defence Force (Kachin PDF) took over a Myanmar army camp near the jade mining town of Hpakant in Kachin State on Saturday, members of the coalition said. The KIA and Kachin PDF launched an attack on the military’s hill post and police station in Hway Hkar village, 13 miles southwest of Hpakant, on January 6, setting fire to the station that day but abandoning the camp after the junta launched several airstrikes. The camp remained out of reach until the armed groups struck the site again on January 18. Fighting continued for two days until the military abandoned it on Saturday morning, a member of the Hpakant chapter of the Kachin PDF said. “We captured the camp at around 7am,” he told Myanmar Now. “There are junta soldiers who fled, so we are going after those people, and we also confiscated a lot of things from the camp.” He added that there were junta casualties at the location, but the number of deaths had not been confirmed. The junta launched at least four airstrikes on the area on January 18 and 19 in an effort to force the KIA and Kachin PDF to retreat. They also reportedly fired heavy artillery from a tactical hill in Hpakant town, a resident said. Myanmar Now was unable to reach the KIA’s spokesperson for comment on the seizure of the Hway Hkar army post. Locals in the village of Hseng Taung, which is around six miles outside of Hway Hkar and housing around 1,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the area, expressed concern on Sunday that the occupying soldiers could head in their direction. “Now [the Kachin joint forces] are chasing the troops who ran down the ravine, but we are watching whether the retreating junta column is going towards Hseng Taung, where IDPs are currently seeking refuge,” a man from the village said. Another 1,000 people have fled Hway Hkar for area villages including Hawng Par and Tamakhan, as well as Hpakant town. The KIA has for years been fighting the military across Kachin and northern Shan states as well as in northern Sagaing Region. On January 15, the KIA launched an assault on a military base in Namphetka village tract in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township, shooting down a fighter jet during the battles the next day as the aircraft was reportedly carrying out an attack on the area. Collaborating with the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front and the PDF, the KIA had been targeting junta positions around the Shan State town of Mongmit since January 18, and reportedly took control of the location on Friday.

Kachin forces capture military camp outside jade-rich town of Hpakant

The KIA and Kachin PDF seize a military post southwest of the Kachin State town weeks after their initial attack on the site

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