The junta air force deployed drones and manned aircraft this week in bombing raids targeting an alliance of anti-junta fighters in Kachin State’s Bhamo and Hpakant townships, according to the anti-junta groups’ spokesperson.
Battles have been ongoing between junta forces and the anti-junta coalition, made up of fighters from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a long-established ethnic armed group in the state, and the Kachin People’s Defence Forces (Kachin PDF), formed after the military coup of 2021.
According to KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu, the junta has resorted to heavy artillery shelling and aerial bombing to break a KIA and Kachin PDF siege on a junta-occupied hotel in the village of Hseng Taung, Hpakant Township. The anti-junta forces have also surrounded and trapped junta troops in Yu Mar village, a neighbourhood of Hpakant, he said.
Battles broke out in Hseng Taung after junta forces took over the hotel on September 7, later spreading over a wider area of Hpakant Township.
“The main issue is that the army units at the Lucky Men Hotel are not leaving. Because they’re not leaving, our KIA and allied forces have surrounded them,” Col. Naw Bu said. “As a result, they’re firing artillery from the tactical hill base in Hpakant and calling in air support.”
Junta warplanes reportedly conducted an airstrike on Hseng Taung using fighter jets on Wednesday around 4:30pm. Casualties from the strike have yet to be confirmed.
Clashes on the previous Sunday reportedly resulted in heavy casualties, with more than 30 local people killed and more than 150 houses burned or destroyed by artillery shells or bombs.
Most residents of Hseng Taung, located a few miles south of Hpakant across the Uyu River, have fled their homes due to the fighting. Only a few shops remain open, and the streets are quiet, according to some of the few locals who have remained or returned.
Alongside the Hpakant battles, intense fighting has also continued in Kachin State’s Bhamo and Momauk townships.
The clashes broke out due to a junta counteroffensive aimed at retaking Momauk from anti-junta forces, launched a few days after the joint forces of the KIA and Kachin PDF captured the junta’s last remaining infantry battalion base in Momauk on August 19.
The junta is using armoured vehicles in their attempt to recapture Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 437 base about nine miles east of Bhamo, according to Col. Naw Bu.
The KIA spokesman added that fighting had spread to within five miles of Bhamo, with airstrikes launched nearly every day by the military.
“This morning around 5am, there was an airstrike by a fighter jet. We haven’t heard more about the situation on the ground since then, but there was fighting yesterday,” Col. Naw Bu said on Wednesday. “The junta was firing heavy artillery, conducting airstrikes, using drones to attack, and advancing with armoured vehicles.”
The junta is concentrating its forces on retaking Momauk and LIB 437 because of their tactical importance for accessing and defending Bhamo, the location of the army’s Military Operations Command 21 (MOC-21) headquarters, according to Col. Naw Bu.
Since the KIA and Kachin PDF fighters launched a broad offensive campaign in Kachin State in March of this year, the alliance has captured hundreds of junta bases and outposts across the state as well as the towns of Sumprabum, Injangyang, Sadung, Myo Hla, Sinbo, the border trade town of Kanpaikti, and Mabein in northern Shan State.
