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Military attacks ethnic Ta’ang armed group’s base in northern Shan State using aircraft and drones

The junta, accompanied by local allied militias, also fired artillery at villages, displacing more than 1,000 people

The Myanmar army attacked a base controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township from both the ground and air last Friday, according to a spokesperson for the ethnic armed organisation. 

The area where the site in question is located—on a hill three miles outside of Hko Mone village and near Milestone 105 of the commercial trade zone on the Chinese border—has been targeted in multiple junta assaults this month. 

Lt-Col Tar Aik Kyaw of the TNLA told Myanmar Now that a fighter jet from the town of Lashio, where the Northeastern Military Command is located, bombed the base twice on September 22, at 1pm and again one hour later. 

“Our bases were not damaged,” he said on Saturday. “They just fired randomly from the air. No one from our side was killed or injured.”

Some 200 ground troops from the Northeastern Command and the junta-allied Panse and Lon Htan militias, also attacked the post four times, firing 60mm missiles from remote controlled drones. 

Fighting between the military and the TNLA around the base lasted until late in the evening, after which the Ta’ang armed group reportedly confiscated several light weapons while “clearing” the area following the battle.

Junta units based in Kutkai fired more than heavy artillery shells at battlefields near two area Myanmar army bases, as well as the villages of Nar Htan, Mankan, Ho Paw and Hko Mone. 

The military council has not released any public information regarding the clashes. 

However, the TNLA stated that fighting also broke out in Muse Township on the same day as the attacks on the Kutkai base.

Junta weapons seized by the TNLA during the September 22 battles (TNLA)

A ground column of soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 409, under Light Infantry Division 99, and the Lon Htan militia attacked Hseng Khaung village in Muse at noon and Ho Paw village two hours later. 

The TNLA’s Saturday statement on the clashes claimed that the junta suffered several casualties and that the ethnic armed organisation had seized guns, missiles, ammunition and other military supplies. 

Ten miles outside of Muse, junta forces including the Namkham Myoma Militia, have been conducting daily attacks for around one week targeting the strategic Lwei Tay Mhine hill, where a TNLA post is located, on the highway to neighbouring Namkham Township. 

More than 1,000 residents of five villages in Namkham Township have fled their homes due to the fighting, which was expected to intensify over the weekend. 

The TNLA has been engaged in a recent series of battles with the junta along the Shan State-China border since early August, and more recently in Mogok Township in Mandalay Region, where the ethnic armed organisation is collaborating with the anti-regime People’s Defence Force. 

At the time of reporting, the Ta’ang army claimed to have clashed with the military a total of 55 times in the last two months.

Displaced Muse locals seen on September 19 (Myat Pan / Myanmar Now)

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