Myanmar’s resistance closes in on junta’s factories of death

On a winter’s morning in early 2025, a group of more than 20 young men in military uniforms was making its way through the deep ravines and dense jungle straddling the border between Chin State and Magway Region.They were carrying short-range 107mm rockets weighing around 20kg each. They had travelled for 15 days, by motor vehicle and boat, to reach their destination—a junta weapons factory about 30 miles from Seikphyu, a town on the western bank of the Ayeyarwady River in Magway’s Pakokku District.Once they were within range of their target, they spent two days preparing their assault. Only when they were absolutely ready did their leader issue the command to fire eight rockets at the factory. Loud explosions echoed through the area.This attack, which took place on January 18, could be counted a success. Seven of the eight rockets fired hit their target—a factory run by the Directorate of Defence Industries, or DI (also commonly known by its Burmese acronym, Ka Pa Sa), to produce 500-pound bombs for Myanmar’s air force. There are a total of 25 such facilities scattered around the country’s central heartland, including 15 in Magway Region alone, producing a wide range of military equipment and munitions. A multiple-launch rocket system built by the Myanmar regime’s Directorate of Defence Industries (Photo: EPA) “It lasted from 2pm to 6pm, during which we fired a total of eight 107mm rockets. Seven of them hit their targets. We aimed at the main factory buildings where the bombs are assembled and at the storage facility,” said Nagar Gyi (“Big Dragon”), the 33-year-old founder and leader of No More Dictatorship, a Mandalay-based urban guerrilla group that took part in the attack. The assault on the DI-21 factory near Seikphyu was his first on a weapons-manufacturing facility since joining the resistance in 2021.The factory was in a remote area surrounded by forests, mountains, ravines, and gorges, making it extremely difficult to reach. After the arduous two-week journey from their base, the team did everything in its power to ensure that its efforts resulted in maximum damage to the regime’s capacity to fight its many enemies.“Launching the attack wasn’t easy. We faced numerous challenges just getting to that point. Once we were there, we couldn’t just fire blindly; we had to consider everything, including sea level, angle, latitude, and longitude, before taking the shot,” said Nagar Gyi.Their painstaking calculations paid off. Besides blowing up their primary targets, the rockets the team deployed also killed several junta troops, he added. Within reachSince late last year, anti-junta forces have been setting their sights on the regime’s munitions factories. While most of these facilities are located in remote, inaccessible areas of central Myanmar, far from the traditional conflict zones of the country’s border regions, they are increasingly within reach of ethnic armed groups that have come to dominate in the country’s west. The Arakan Army (AA) and the Chin Brotherhood, along with other groups determined to end the regime’s rule, now see the destruction of these factories as the surest way to achieve their goal.According to Pe Than, a veteran Rakhine politician with close ties to the AA, the group has two main goals—forcing all junta forces out of Rakhine State, and ending military rule in Myanmar once and for all.“I believe they have joined forces with their allies to carry out operations in Ayeyarwady, Bago, and Magway regions. If the AA and its allies can hold areas west of the Ayeyarwady River, toppling the regime will become increasingly achievable,” he said, noting that even Naypyitaw, the junta’s main stronghold, would be vulnerable if the regime lost control over the country’s west.“Once the west side of the country is secured, crossing to the east of the Ayeyarwady River would be possible, and the situation could reach the point where even Naypyitaw might be threatened. I believe that area will become very crucial,” he said. A resistance fighter tests a newly made firearm at a makeshift weapons factory (Photo: Myanmar Now) In the third week of January, the AA released a statement announcing an intensification of clashes along two key roads that cut across the Rakhine Yoma, the mountain range that separates Rakhine State from central Myanmar. One road links Ann, where the junta lost control of its Western Regional Military Command headquarters in December, and Padan in Magway Region. The other lies between the Rakhine town of Taungup and Padaung (Pandaung) in Bago Region.A major focal point is the area near Oke Shit Pin, a town in Padaung Township situated on the Taungup-Padaung road. In early January, the AA and its allies began attacking a junta outpost near the town, where the regime has four factories manufacturing steel, explosives, ammunition, small firearms, and grenades: DI-5, DI-6, DI-7, and DI-9. In addition, there is the DI-3 factory in Sinde, 16 miles east of Padaung. Situated on the western bank of the Ayeyarwady River, DI-3 is the only Ka Pa Sa factory in Myanmar producing aircraft bombs, apart from DI-21 near Seikphyu.Due to the recent clashes near Oke Shit Pin and the fear of a major blast at the DI-5 factory, where many explosives are stored, most residents of the town and the surrounding area have fled their homes, according to local sources.‘Won’t be easy’The situation farther north, on the Ann-Padan road, is even more intense. This area is also near a number of key Ka Pa Sa factories. Less than 10 miles north of Padan is the town of Ngape, where the DI-14 factory, which produces anti-aircraft shells, is located. To the east, in Magway’s Minhla Township, are two more munitions factories: DI-2, which manufactures mortar and artillery shells, near the town of Malun; and DI-10, responsible for producing 40mm long-range missiles, near the village of Kone Gyi.On January 13, as clashes along the Ann-Padan road escalated, the military reportedly moved weapons from the DI-14 factory to the air force base in the city of Magway, east of the Ayeyarwady. More recently, the AA and its allies have targeted the Nat Yay Kan air-defence base in Ngape Township, where anti-junta forces say they have inflicted heavy casualties on the regime in their bid to take full control of the nearly 70-mile Ann-Padan road.Many Ka Pa Sa factories are situated along the Pathein-Monywa road, which connects Magway and Ayeyarwady regions along the Rakhine Yoma, or Arakan Hills, to the south and the Chin Hills to the north. According to Captain Zin Yaw, a defector from Myanmar’s military who has served in a number of these factories, they are vulnerable not only to attack by the AA and its allies, but also by Chin forces in Magway’s hilly Yaw region. Bullets and cartridges used against anti-coup protesters in Yangon in March 2021 bear the Ka Pa Sa stamp (Myanmar Now) “It is now evident that these Defence Industries factories are vital to the regime’s survival, and we are now at a stage where action can be taken against them,” he said, adding that the highest-value targets will be those producing essential materials.“Even if other factories continue operating, nothing can be produced without steel and gunpowder,” he explained.However, seizing control of the factories will not be easy, he said, as most are encircled by villages inhabited by military families, while the factories themselves are in large compounds that house hundreds of workers, including many former soldiers.“Even after leaving the army, they remain in these so-called soldiers’ villages. They have considerable numbers, and if armed, they could form a strong defence force,” he said.Moreover, the regime has reinforced its positions along key routes such as the Seikphyu-Pauk road, the Pakokku-Mindat road near the Chill Hills, and the Taungup-Padaung and Ann-Padan roads across the Rakhine Yoma.It has also taken more extreme measures. In Seikphyu Township, where it has bolstered its forces near the DI-21 and D-22 factories, it seized land from local farmers to make room for helicopters to land. And on December 26, it set the entire village of Phet Ka Nar, near DI-22, on fire to secure the area.“They have strengthened their forces, including deploying naval ships. Their primary goal is to prevent us from taking the area,” Tay Za, commander of Seikphyu-based Pakokku District PDF Battalion 11, told Myanmar Now. Weapons and ammunition seized from Myanmar army troops in Karenni State in June 2022 (KNDF) Neutralising the war machineIn January, a column of around 180 junta troops stationed in Myaing advanced on the DI-24 factory, located near the town of Pauk on the Pakokku-Mindat road. Anti-regime forces attempted to intercept the column, which had air support and was carrying rations, medical supplies, and ammunition, but were unable to do so, according to Nga Chit, information officer for the Pakokku District PDF Battalion 6, based in Myaing.“We tried to intercept them with all the weapons at our disposal, but they pushed forward relentlessly. They sustained heavy casualties during the battle. It was a close-quarters fight,” he said.Currently, there are more than 100 junta troops stationed at the DI-24 factory, which the resistance forces say they have completely surrounded. “They’re not going anywhere now. Our PDF troops have encircled the Ka Pa Sa within a three-mile radius,” said Nga Chit.According to Zin Yaw, it is not so important to capture entire factories. All that matters is neutralising them, by destroying key buildings or even individual machines.“Rather than seizing the entire factory, it would be best to target and break down individual components of the factory and machinery,” he said.For Nagar Gyi, fresh from his first mission to take out one of the cogs in the junta’s war machine, it is clear that there is no better way to defeat the regime than by crippling its capacity to produce weapons of war.“Destroying the Ka Pa Sa factories would mean we’ve already won 80-90 percent of the revolution,” he said.

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