KIA mounts new offensive, targeting air base, outposts near Myitkyina and Laiza

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) says it carried out a series of coordinated attacks near the Kachin State capital Myitkyina and elsewhere in the state early Thursday morning as part of a new offensive against Myanmar’s military. The attacks targeted an airbase near Myitkyina and outposts near Laiza, a town on the Chinese border that serves as the KIA’s headquarters, according to the group’s spokesperson, Col. Naw Bu. Military positions along the major Myitkyina-Bhamo road, which runs west of Laiza, were also hit, he added. Among those targeted were outposts in the towns of Waingmaw and Dawphoneyan, used by the regime to control the road and fire heavy artillery into Laiza. Sources in Kachin State told Myanmar Now that the KIA and its allies used portable rocket launchers to fire 107mm shells at the airbase near Myitkyina. Retaliatory shelling by regime forces hit a nearby camp for internally displaced persons, killing at least one woman and a child. Video seen by Myanmar Now shows both victims lying in a pool of blood under a collapsed bamboo structure. The anti-regime offensive also includes troops from the Arakan Army (AA) and the People’s Defence Force (PDF), the armed wing of the shadow National Unity Government, according to Naw Bu.The Kachin PDF, a local resistance group under the direct command of the KIA, also took part in Thursday’s attacks. The AA, which also has its headquarters in Laiza, has been waging a successful military campaign in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, where it has seized control of at least six major towns and a number of key military command bases in recent weeks. Laiza has been a magnet for thousands of young people from around the country opposed to the regime that seized power more than three years ago. Until recently, the KIA has avoided direct confrontation with the junta’s forces in Kachin State. However, it has been instrumental in training PDF fighters for combat in neighbouring Sagaing Region, where it has also deployed a number of its commanders to lead resistance efforts. An NUG official who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media said that there were thousands of resistance troops involved in the KIA offensive, which the group has been carefully planning for some time. “The targeted outposts in this operation are located on strategic hilltops and difficult to attack,” he added. According to KIA spokesperson Naw Bu, a number of junta bases had been captured by late Thursday, and fighting was still ongoing.

KIA mounts new offensive, targeting air base, outposts near Myitkyina and Laiza

The group and its allies carried out a series of coordinated attacks early Thursday morning, according to its spokesperson

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