Myanmar junta restricts travel to northern Shan State as fresh clashes erupt near Mandalay Region border

The Myanmar military has blocked routes into northern Shan State from Mandalay Region over the past week while fighting to contain Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and resistance forces near the regional border. Osmond, a spokesperson for the Mandalay Region People's Defence Forces (MDY-PDF) confirmed that fighting has resumed in villages between Nawnghkio, northern Shan State and Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region. The TNLA, an ethnic armed group that has participated in coordinated offensives against the Myanmar military along with its allies since last year, has captured and held de facto control of several towns in northern Shan State including Nawnghkio. A source associated with the TNLA confirmed the recent escalation of clashes in the area, adding that the junta’s ground offensive had recently extended past the Nawnghkio Township villages of Ohn Ma Thee and Ong Ma Hkar. “The epicentre of the fighting is in Gant Gaw village,” the TNLA source said. “As of Sunday, there were both ground and air attacks, then drone attacks. Then the aircraft started acid-bombing.” The TNLA-connected source said he could not confirm the number of civilian or combatant casualties from the recent clashes, but added, “We’ve heard the military is deliberately attacking civilians by designating places without any recent fighting as military targets.” Map showing areas of ongoing fighting in northern Shan State near Mandalay Region The targeted areas, surrounding Ohn Ma Thee and Ong Ma Hkar, are close to the junction of the Mandalay-Lashio and Mandalay-Mogok roads, he said, and only around eight miles southwest of the town of Nawnghkio and Goke Twin Bridge, which are currently under TNLA control. Fierce fighting broke out between junta troops and the combined forces of the MDY-PDF and TNLA in the same areas in November of 2023. After overrunning the command base of the junta’s Missile Battalion 606 two miles south of Nawnghkio, the alliance of anti-junta forces succeeded in taking control of the town on July 10 of this year. Junta blocking travel to northern Shan State Amid the ongoing clashes, the military has blocked trucks, passenger vehicles, and private cars travelling towards northern Shan State from Mandalay Region from going beyond the Wet Wun checkpoint at Pyin Oo Lwin Township’s eastern exit, according to a local woman from a village outside Pyin Oo Lwin. “We can't hear the sounds of artillery fire from this side like before,” she said. “We can faintly hear it from the north,” she added, referring to the areas near Nawnghkio. “I heard that the fighting is happening in villages on the outskirts of Nawnghkio.” “Even vegetable sellers going to Nawnghkio are no longer allowed through the checkpoint,” she continued, referring to vendors who typically sell produce from their motorcycles. “People from this side are not allowed to go sell at the market near Wet Wun. They say vehicles are not allowed through.” As the fighting spreads closer to Pyin Oo Lwin, the site of the Myanmar military’s premier officer training academies and home to a number of high-ranking officers, the junta has increased security preparations and expanded checkpoints both inside and outside the town, according to locals. “They've added to the bunkers at the checkpoint in front of the steel factory and sent in more forces. The checkpoints at Zee Pin Gyi on the way down to Mandalay and the 16-mile checkpoint have also become stricter,” a Pyin Oo Lwin resident said. Inspections have reportedly become more frequent at the 16-mile checkpoint between Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin since the personnel manning it increased threefold. Some 50 members of the junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militias, divided among four checkpoints, are helping soldiers and police inspect travelling vehicles on these routes. “The 16-mile checkpoint is the worst,” the Pyin Oo Lwin Township resident said. “They open and check everything, even parcels. People on vehicles have to get off, show their identification, and wait in line to be checked. Not even motorcycles are spared from searches.” Rescue workers carrying a civilian hit by shrapnel in a junta airstrike on Nawnghkio on October 19 (Photo - TNLA) The TNLA released a statement claiming the junta air force had dropped eight bombs on Tha Pyay Yae Ward in Nawnghkio on Monday, injuring a local resident as well as damaging some shops and homes. According to the statement, the air force also dropped two 500-pound bombs the night before on the village of Kyauk Hpyu Lay in Namhsan Township, which is also under the TNLA’s control. One of the bombs landed in a monastery compound and damaged some buildings, the statement said. The junta air force bombed wards in Nawnghkio at least twice on Saturday, killing two children and one other civilian, according to a statement by the TNLA, as well as injuring three others and destroying 17 houses. Two days earlier, another junta airstrike had destroyed houses and injured at least four civilians on the full moon day of Thadingyut, an important holiday for Myanmar’s Buddhist majority. The TNLA has claimed that, after losing control of most towns in northern Shan State except Muse, the junta is deliberately targeting civilian areas and populations daily to destroy people’s lives and property. The TNLA has issued statements via social media urging civilians living in the targeted townships to evacuate as soon as possible.

Myanmar junta restricts travel to northern Shan State as fresh clashes erupt near Mandalay Region border

Offensive manoeuvres by the army and air force have led to fierce clashes with resistance fighters, with most of the fighting concentrated around Nawnghkio on the roads to Lashio and Mogok

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