Myanmar military carries out airstrikes as fighting escalates in Kachin State

The Myanmar military regime’s air force launched bombing raids this week over Kachin State’s Hpakant Township after clashes had intensified for weeks near Hpakant and elsewhere in the state, according to reports from locals and anti-junta fighters. Military aircraft bombed Hseng Taung village a few miles southeast of Hpakant at around 1am on Thursday, according to a local man connected to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the powerful ethnic armed group leading the coalition of anti-junta fighters in the state. Military aircraft bombed Hseng Taung village a few miles southeast of Hpakant at around 1am on Thursday, according to a local man connected to the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the powerful ethnic armed group leading the coalition of anti-junta fighters in the state. “Two attack helicopters came and dropped bombs, then both sides kept firing continuously,” the KIA-connected source said on Thursday. “They kept firing until morning using both heavy and light weapons.” “They also fired heavy artillery at a distance from the tactical hill base,” the man added, referring to the junta-controlled base a few miles from where the bombs hit. “They were shooting all night long.” Fighting intensified in Hseng Taung on Thursday afternoon as anti-junta forces led by the KIA started launching drone strikes, according to the KIA-connected source. Junta aircraft conducted two more airstrikes at around 3pm, he said. KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu confirmed that the military had carried out aerial attacks, but he said that due to the late hour at which the events occurred and the intense fighting afterwards, it was not possible to confirm the number of casualties. The clashes in Hseng Taung followed a standoff last week at the Lucky Men Hotel in Hseng Taung between military troops, who had occupied the hotel and held civilians captive inside, and the KIA and Kachin People’s Defence Forces, who besieged the hotel hoping to force the civilians’ release. The civilians were reportedly freed on Tuesday, but various details about the situation remain unverified. Airstrikes also took place amid ongoing clashes in Bhamo, just over 110 miles southeast of Hpakant, according to KIA-connected sources. After the KIA overran the Light Infantry Battalion 437 base in Momauk some 10 miles east of Bhamo, a flotilla of eight military vessels believed to be carrying reinforcements and weapons from Mandalay began navigating up the Ayeyarwady River towards the area. According to Col. Naw Bu, the ships started moving towards Bhamo, the nearest riverport town to Momauk, on Tuesday after docking temporarily in Shwegu, some 50 miles downstream. “Our KIA fighters and their allies carried out attacks all along the route from Shwegu to Bhamo,” the KIA spokesperson said. “Only one small tin can-like boat among the larger ships heading to Bhamo made it there. The rest were destroyed or turned back.” The junta flotilla had already repeatedly come under attack earlier on its journey near the river towns of Thabeikkyin, Mandalay Region and Tigyaing and Katha, Sagaing Region. Since clashes began in Hpakant and neighbouring townships in the first week of September, local sources have reported more than 30 people have been killed, including civilians and noncombatant personnel of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the group for which the KIA serves as an armed wing. Hundreds of homes have also burned down during the battles, according to the same sources, who said the casualties and destruction were caused mostly by the junta forces’ artillery shelling. Spokespersons for the military council have not responded to Myanmar Now’s queries about the fighting. Issuing its only statement about events in Kachin State in the past month, the military council on Tuesday blamed the shelling of residential areas in the state on resistance forces and denied that two reported civilian deaths in Hpakant’s Hnget Pyaw Taw Ward had been caused by the military’s artillery. Intense fighting has occurred in many Kachin State townships since the KIA and allied anti-junta forces resumed large-scale offensives against the military in March of this year. KIA-led coalition forces have reportedly captured hundreds of junta bases in Kachin State and northern Shan State. The KIA-led fighters have also captured the border trade hubs of Lwegel (Lweje or Loi Je) and Kanpaikti and the towns of Momauk, Mansi, Sumprabum, Injangyang, Sadung, Sinbo, and Myo Hla in Kachin State, as well as the northern Shan State towns of Mabein and Nam Hpat Kar, Kutkai Township.

Myanmar military carries out airstrikes as fighting escalates in Kachin State

The airstrikes took place in Hpakant after a high-profile standoff between junta troops and forces led by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), while elsewhere in the state the KIA foiled an apparent attempt by junta forces to send in reinforcements by boat

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