Heavy fighting has been reported near the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) stronghold of Laiza and farther south in Shan State since last weekend amid an intensification of the Myanmar military’s operations in areas near the border with China.
On Saturday, major clashes broke out along the Bhamo-Myitkyina highway in Kachin State as a regime convoy carrying weapons, ammunition and reinforcements started moving towards Laiza.
According to KIA information officer Col. Naw Bu, the troops and supplies had been transported to Bhamo, some 95km south of Laiza, a week earlier via the Ayeyarwady River.
“The ships are heading back to Mandalay, but now the military is trying to move the weapons and food supplies they carried towards Nam Sang Yang and Laiza by truck,” he said, adding that the fighting continued for three full days.
The junta has been massively increasing its troop numbers near Nam Sang Yang, a village just 20km north of Laiza on the Bhama-Myitkyina highway, since early July.
As of Monday, the four-vehicle convoy, which was accompanied by a column of around 100 regime soldiers, had only gotten as far as the village of Dawthponeyan, some 50km south of Nam San Yang, due to mine attacks by KIA forces, according to Col. Naw Bu.
He added that two days before the convoy left Bhamo, the regime carried out airstrikes near Nam Sang Yang in an apparent effort to clear the area.
“I don’t know if they were trying to attack us or carry out clearance operations, or if they were just doing it because they’re losing,” said the KIA information officer.
A resident of Nam Sang Yang told Myanmar Now that most people living in the village had fled and are currently sheltering in Laiza, Waingmaw, or Myitkyina.
“I don’t think anyone will be returning home anytime soon. They’ve conducted so many airstrikes that we don’t know what kind of condition our houses are in right now,” he said.
Meanwhile, regime forces have also been carrying out attacks on the KIA and its ally, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), in northern Shan State, sources there reported.
On Monday, two junta columns, together with members of local militia groups allied with the regime, attacked TNLA and KIA positions between the town of Kutkai and the Milestone 105 Commercial Zone near the Chinese border.
According to a member of the TNLA, a camp operated by the group near the village of Kho Mone in Kutkai Township came under attack from a 200-strong column of Light Infantry Division 99 troops at around 9am, triggering clashes that continued until the TNLA was forced to retreat about eight hours later.
“Our unit had been operating in the area for three days, so we had set up a camp inside the old village. We had to fight against junta soldiers and militia members almost the entire day,” he said.
At around the same time, another column of about 100 junta soldiers attacked KIA forces stationed near the Milestone 105 Commercial Zone, which is just outside the border town of Muse. Fighting there ended at around 3pm, according to a local woman.
“We could hear them firing guns and heavy artillery. The roof of our bathroom and our fence were destroyed, but nobody was injured,” said the woman, who lives in the village of Nam Aum, about 5km from where the fighting took place.
According to local news reports, eight regime soldiers, including officers, were killed in the fighting, and another 16 were injured. The People’s Defence Force, the armed wing of the shadow National Unity Government, fought alongside the KIA troops, the reports added.
There were also reports of further clashes between the TNLA and regime forces in Kutkai Township on Tuesday, but details were not available at the time of reporting.
