NUG fighters launch offensive, besiege two towns in Magway Region

Resistance forces under the command of the National Unity Government (NUG) have surrounded two towns and destroyed power supply infrastructure in an escalating offensive against the junta in Magway Region, according to a statement issued by the NUG on Sunday. The NUG’s Ministry of Defence said the offensive, carried out by the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) of the Magway Region Military Command theatre, began at dawn on December 23 and has been targeting the military’s bases in five Magway Region towns in Magway Region including Salin, Sinphyukyun, Pauk, Pwintbyu, and Seikphyu. Attacks commenced on junta positions in Sinphyukyun, resulting in intense urban fighting at locations including the Nwe Ta Mae Bridge and the junta’s police station, allowing resistance forces to blockade the town. Consequently, the Salin Township People's Defense Organization (PDO) issued a warning on December 25 urging residents to evacuate before they attempted a full takeover of the military’s bases based in Salin and Sinphyukyun. On the same night, resistance forces reportedly intercepted a column of army reinforcements en route from Salin to Sinphyukyun and destroyed two army trucks carrying weapons, ammunition, and drones. Clashes have continued in Salin and Sinphyukhyun, two towns in Salin Township about seven miles apart, with the military airlifting reinforcements into the besieged towns, according to a resistance source. “The fighting is ongoing. There are clashes almost every day,” the source said. “Since they can't send supplies with ground columns, they’re dropping the supplies and ammunition by aircraft." The towns already targeted by the resistance operation include Salin, Sinphyukyun, Pauk, Pwintbyu, and Seikphyu. The NUG has claimed the planned operation will impact at least one more town but has not publicly disclosed which. Residents were trapped on the day that fighting first broke out, and locals said they have been fleeing in groups since then because the available means of transport have limited the number who can leave at one time. “We had to flee the town in three-wheel cars. Then we got to the boat jetty and crossed. A motorboat can hold around 20 people. We couldn’t carry many belongings,” a Sinphyukyun resident said. “We had to leave in three stages and couldn’t go via the land route.” While most people left when the opportunity arose, a few have stayed behind in Sinphyukyun, reportedly to avoid being forced into mandatory service by the military. “There are elderly people, and some young and middle-aged people were also left behind,” the Sinphyukyun resident said. “The men were especially reluctant to flee. They worried that if they left, they risked being conscripted as porters.” Rescue teams helping Sinphyukyun residents relocate (Photo: Supplied) During the Magway Region operation, resistance forces have blown up around 100 utility poles carrying power lines that supply junta armaments factories in the region, according to the NUG statement. The lines supply electricity to the Directorate of Defence Industries (DI) 21 factory in Seikphyu Township, which produces aerial bombs; the DI 22 factory, which produces small firearms; and the DI 24 factory in Pauk Township, which produces aluminium for general use in junta munitions and weapons. The army has assigned a large force of troops to repair or replace the poles that were destroyed, a member of the Seikphyu Township Peoples’ Defence Organisation (PDO) said. “There are people coming to do repairs where the resistance set off the explosions,” the PDO member said on Sunday. “They’re firing heavy weapons, they’re shooting their small arms as they come in to make repairs.” “As of today, power has not been restored at DI 22,” he added. “The repairs aren’t done, although they came out in full force.” Most of the military’s armaments factories are west of the Ayeyarwady River in Magway Region. Holding Salin and Sinphyukyun may allow the resistance to severely compromise several of the factories, according to Captain Zin Yaw, a former officer of the Myanmar military who defected and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement. “Salin and Sinphyukyun are positioned on the supply route connecting the junta’s DI factories on the west bank to their power supply. If resistance forces can control just these two towns, the situation could reach a point where resistance forces can blockade Defense Industry factories 20, 21, 22, 24, and 25,” he explained. “It can be said that this operation has started targeting a weak point that could cripple the DI factories,” he continued. “If they can gain 100 percent control and a DI factory fails, it will immobilise operations in the other factories too.” The PDO based in Myaing Township, some 70 miles north of Salin, announced on December 24 that it had launched an attack on the DI 24 factory and released a video showing the destruction of power lines supplying the facility. Myaing PDO forces detonating electric power pylons near the junta’s Directorate of Defence Industries (DI) 24 armaments factories. The resistance has been targeting one of the military’s weak points by sabotaging the power supply for the weapons factories, most of which are in Magway Region west of the Ayeyarwady River (Photo: Screenshot) The Myaing Township PDO was joined in the operation by members of the Pauk Township PDO, Magway Township PDO, Pakokku District PDF Battalion 1, and other allies, according to the statement. Naung Yoe, head of military research at the CDM-connected organisation Myanmar Defense & Security Institute, argued that while there are some reasons to doubt the effectiveness of the resistance’s strategy in Magway Region, it is likely to have some impact. “Since the junta forces have prepared other backup power sources, I think it would be difficult to stop them completely,” he noted. “However, looking at the big picture, if these electricity lines are the main power source for DI 21 specifically, we can say it will impact their military weapon production processes to a certain extent.” The resistance forces’ intensification of operations in Magway Region and elsewhere recently is a response to increased junta airstrikes. The military has concentrated more of its firepower in central Myanmar due to the gradual deescalation of hostilities in other areas of the country like northern Shan State, where a Chinese-brokered ceasefire is now in effect. Resistance operations are also ongoing in western Magway Region, near the border with Rakhine State, which is still mostly under the control of the powerful anti-junta armed group Arakan Army (AA). According to Naung Yoe, the resistance operations in Magway Region are also likely intended to create pressure that undermines the ongoing, junta-managed elections. “It is likely they are implementing the counteroffensives to coincide with the elections organised by the military council,” he said. “It is driven by both military and political objectives.” The junta is not planning to hold elections in five of Magway Region’s 25 townships where the resistance remains strong and they have failed to take back control: the townships of Saw, Htilin, Pauk, Myaing, and Yesagyo. Of the remaining 20, nine townships held elections on December 28 for the first phase of voting, including Magway and Pwintbyu townships. 11 other townships including Salin and Seikphyu are scheduled to be hold elections in mid-January as part of the second phase of the junta-run polling. Weapons and ammunition damaged during an attack on a junta column in Salin Township (Photo: NUG’s Ministry of Defense)

NUG fighters launch offensive, besiege two towns in Magway Region

Fighters commanded by the publicly mandated, anti-junta shadow government are executing operations aimed at compromising the junta’s armaments production, intensifying pressure while the regime attempts to hold secure elections

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