Myanmar military deploys airstrikes, reinforcements to defend Sagaing Region base

Battles raged in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township on Thursday as resistance forces attacked a junta outpost in Kant Daunt village on a highway linking Sagaing and Magway regions, local sources said. The military regime conducted multiple airstrikes and flew in reinforcements using Mi-17 helicopters to defend the outpost, according to local villagers who spoke to Myanmar Now. “The fighting is still happening, and a fighter jet just attacked twice near Kant Daunt at around 12:20 and 12:30pm,” said a man from Pale Township who had been displaced from his home. “A Mi-17 helicopter also dropped off junta troops near In Ma Htee at around 9:00 this morning. It was the third time. They also brought in troops by air yesterday,” he added. According to locals, In Ma Htee, less than three miles east of Kant Daunt, is a stronghold of the junta-trained Pyu Saw Htee militias. Kant Daunt lies on a strategically important route often used by the military regime used to move supplies and reinforcements from Sagaing to Magway Region and Chin State before 2022. The military has deployed more of its troops to the area because of the Kant Daunt outpost’s proximity to the Northwestern Regional Military Command in Monywa, the Sagaing Region capital. Anti-regime forces led by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been launching attacks on the junta outpost since Monday, one of the last four remaining junta bases in Pale Township. Anti-regime forces also intercepted junta troops dispatched from In Ma Htee, which houses a garrison of at least 70 junta troops and members of the Pyu Saw Htee. “Shells were fired from In Ma Htee and a column of troops was sent to Kant Daunt as reinforcements. But the resistance forces intercepted them,” a source close to anti-regime forces said. He also claimed that resistance forces captured several junta soldiers alive and confiscated weapons and ammunition. Airstrikes have displaced at least 6,000 people from several villages near Kant Daunt, according to the administrative team operating under the publicly mandated National Unity Government in Pale Township. “Two men sustained injuries when their villages were hit by junta airstrikes on Wednesday,” an NUG administrator said. At least four people, including a 13-year-old boy from Htan Taw Taik village, were also detained by junta troops dispatched from the township’s Zee Phyu Kone village, local sources said. Last year, resistance forces initiated attacks to take control of the town of Pale, but retreated when they came under attack by the junta air force. Around 100 junta troops are positioned at two locations inside Pale—the police station and junta administrative office—but they have been unable to send reinforcements to Kant Daunt, which is less than 12 miles to the west.

Myanmar military deploys airstrikes, reinforcements to defend Sagaing Region base

The junta forces may have prioritised defending the base because of its proximity to the army’s Northwestern Regional Military Command headquarters in Monywa, some 22 miles to the northeast across the Chindwin River

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