Kachin Independence Army takes control of Sinbo town after overrunning Myanmar military base

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) claimed full control of the Kachin State town of Sinbo on Monday after capturing the nearby base of the junta’s Infantry Battalion 141. Sinbo is located on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River, around 60 miles south of the state capital of Myitkyina in the township by the same name. The KIA and its allies first attacked junta targets in Sinbo on February 10, and proceeded to seize control of the town’s police station. They also launched repeated assaults on the IB 141 camp three miles west of the town as recently as Sunday evening, and two days earlier on April 26. Junta soldiers and allied militia members who fled the base sheltered inside one of the protective outposts outside of the camp. By late morning on Monday, the outpost with the escaped junta personnel was also seized by the KIA, giving the ethnic armed organisation control of the area. While there were believed to be more than 200 soldiers in the base, it was not known how many Myanmar military troops were taken prisoner, or how many fled. “We just got confirmation that we have completed the confiscation of Sinbo town at 11:30am this morning,” KIA spokesperson Col Naw Bu said on Monday. “They said that everything can now be captured.” Fighting alongside the KIA in Sinbo were the Arakan Army, the Kachin People’s Defence Force, and the Sagaing Region People’s Defence Team. A member of the Moegyo—or Thunder—Column, which fights under the KIA’s Battalion 12, told Myanmar Now that the fight for the IB 141 base was difficult, since the site was “spacious” and boasted fortified concrete bunkers. Resistance forces were also confronted with junta airstrikes during their advance, with aircraft bombing communities surrounding Sinbo starting on April 25, killing one man and injuring a woman in the village of Myintha. “The air force dropped so many bombs during the evenings,” the Moegyo Column soldier said. “Four aircraft came to attack at the same time during both day and night over three or four days. When four of them would go back, four more would come.” The KIA’s Col Naw Bu said that tension was on the rise in other Kachin State towns, such as Momauk, Waingmaw, Sumprabum, and Hpakant, noting that while there were no battles with the junta at the time of reporting, clashes could break out at any time. In recent months, the KIA and its allies have seized control of more than 70 battalion camps, command centres, tactical bases, and outposts, as well as several towns in Kachin and northern Shan states, including Injangyang, Lweje (Lwegel), and Ma Bein.

Kachin Independence Army takes control of Sinbo town after overrunning Myanmar military base

The Kachin army, accompanied by its allies, seizes a heavily fortified junta Infantry Battalion camp, allowing resistance forces to take over the town south of the state capital

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