Myanmar junta troops enter Hsipaw, in latest blow to TNLA

Junta troops have entered the northern Shan State town of Hsipaw and are now in control of roughly half of the strategically important trade hub, according to local sources. Situated about halfway between Mandalay and Muse on the Chinese border, Hsipaw was captured by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in October of last year. Regime forces pushed into the town on Thursday evening after seizing TNLA positions on its outskirts earlier this week, residents said. “They entered the town at around 8pm, but the sounds of shelling and gunfire had started at 5pm and ended by 6pm,” a local man told Myanmar Now on Friday. “They have taken control of nearly half of the urban area but we could still hear at least five rounds of shelling this morning.” Sources said clashes broke out in Sam Hpeik, a village on the western outskirts of Hsipaw, and at a high school near the entrance of the town on Thursday evening. Hours before junta troops reached the town, smoke was seen billowing from several buildings, including a prison in its Zat Hsu Ward and a hotel in the town centre. There were also reports of four government buildings on fire, including an administrative office and a police station, locals said. “The hotel was struck by drone assaults but four masked men in plain clothes used burning tires to set the other buildings on fire,” one source said, citing eyewitnesses. According to residents, the military had still not reached the prison in Zat Hsu Ward or the villages of Kyaung Hsu and Ton Hsint, located on the northern outskirts of the town near the junta’s Infantry Battalion 23 base, as of this morning. Pro-regime Telegram channels shared video footage of a junta convoy passing through the town’s entrance gate—newly decorated by the TNLA—on Friday. The aftermath of a junta air raid on a village in northern Shan State’s Namhsan Township on the morning of October 17 (Photo: Supplied) The fall of Hsipaw comes just over two weeks after the junta reclaimed control of Kyaukme, some 16 miles southwest of Hispaw, from the TNLA on October 1. The military regime also carried out airstrikes on TNLA-controlled areas in Mongmit Township on Thursday and in Namhsan and Namtu townships on Friday morning, the Ta’ang armed group said. At least two women were killed on Friday morning when a junta warplane dropped bombs on Ho Mein, a village around 11 miles north of the TNLA-held town of Namhsan, a source close to the group said. At least 10 houses were damaged in the aerial assault, which occurred at around 8:30am. Minutes later, a school in Namtu, another town under the control of the TNLA, located roughly 31 miles north of Hsipaw, was also hit by an aerial attack, injuring four teachers. In Mongmit, some 50 miles northwest of Hsipaw, a regime airstrike on Thursday injured a woman and damaged two houses, according to sources. Last year, during the second phase of Operation 1027, the TNLA seized control of several important towns in northern Shan State, including Kyaukme, Nawnghkio, Mongmit, and Hsipaw. As part of an ongoing counteroffensive launched earlier this year, the regime recaptured Nawnghkio in mid-July, and has since pushed on to other TNLA-held towns in the region. The gemstone-mining centre of Mogok in Mandalay Region, located some 100 miles west of Hsipaw, has also seen heavy fighting in recent weeks, sources there reported. TNLA-led forces seized control of the town in July of last year. As Myanmar’s junta continues to use the full force of its military to reclaim lost territory, its closest international backer, China, has also applied intense pressure on anti-regime forces to end the conflict.

Myanmar junta troops enter Hsipaw, in latest blow to TNLA

Around half of the town was under the control of regime forces as of Friday morning, sources said

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