Officer among 18 found dead in junta helicopter downed by Kachin fighters

Spokespersons for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have confirmed that 18 military personnel were killed in a crash landing after anti-junta fighters shot down their helicopter near Bhamo, Kachin State on Tuesday. The city of Bhamo has become an urban battlefield in recent months, with regime forces fighting fiercely to repel assaults by KIA and allied forces seeking to take control. The downed helicopter was one of three that was transporting reinforcements and supplies to junta forces in Bhamo when it came under fire from KIA-led fighters on the ground. The Kachin fighters were able to damage two of the three aircraft, with one crash-landing in the nearby woods around 14 miles east of the town of Shwegu, and one forced to make an emergency landing in Shwegu shortly afterwards. While the Kachin fighters are believed to have deployed drones in the attack, the KIA did not specify which weapons they used. A video clip recorded on Tuesday around 1pm showed three junta helicopters landing one after the other near a riverbank west of Bhamo. The attack took place after one of the helicopters had taken off and as the third was about to land. The footage appears to show a round from a drone striking the rotor blades of the helicopter that was still airborne, prompting it to fly away without completing the landing. The other helicopter, on the ground, also took off and quickly flew away. According to KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu, when the KIA and allied fighters went to search for the helicopter, they found the burned Mi-17-type fuselage in the woods with 18 bodies and weapons inside. “At the crash site, the KIA and allied fighters went to clear the area. We found 18 bodies there. But they were all just burnt bone fragments,” he said. Video clips circulating on pro-KIA web pages appeared to show that the body of the helicopter pilot was wearing an air force major’s rank insignia. In addition to the bodies, the anti-junta forces also said they found at least 14 burned rifles. Junta rifles destroyed in the helicopter crash (Photo: Supplied) The other helicopter that had come under fire later made an emergency landing on a football field near the junta’s Infantry Battalion (IB) 56 base outside of Shwegu. According to a local resident with ties to the KIA, Kachin anti-junta forces fired on this helicopter on Wednesday—the evening after the initial attack—using drones and artillery. “A helicopter broke down and was grounded near the Shwegu IB 56 base, and [KIA] Brigade 11 forces saw it and engaged. It was protected by two tanks and two trucks, but Brigade 11 attacked it using heavy weapons and everything was destroyed,” he said. Col. Naw Bu confirmed KIA fighters had attacked and destroyed the second helicopter. According to the Banmaw (Bhamo) Scout Team, a monitoring group documenting the battlefield situation around Bhamo, the helicopter was hit by artillery on its tail section. Two trucks parked near the helicopter also caught fire and were destroyed. The military council later claimed in a public statement that one of its helicopters had crashed due to a mechanical failure some 14km outside of Bhamo after delivering supplies to the city.The KIA, Kachin People’s Defence Forces (PDF), and Kachin Gurkhas Forces, among other armed groups, have been fighting to take Bhamo from the Myanmar military since December of last year. The junta has deployed airstrikes and night-vision drones in bombing raids, as well as continuously feeding reinforcements, supplies, and ammunition into the area in an all-out effort to hold Bhamo, leading to the city’s near-complete destruction, anti-junta fighters said. Posts on pro-junta social media channels have also claimed the regime forces are using advanced drones and weapons to defeat the KIA and PDF. Clashes resumed with renewed intensity in the area around April 25, after a four-week pause following the March earthquake that hit central Myanmar. Battles are ongoing around the junta’s Military Operations Command 21 headquarters and other bases still held by the junta, as well as in the city’s urban wards. As of this week, ground battles have grown less intense, but the junta has continued to bomb from the air, according to sources within the KIA. The KIA’s ground forces or allies fighting alongside them have now succeeded in downing military aircraft on at least five occasions since the 2021 military coup, including a fighter jet sent to bomb the village of Nam Hpat Kar in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township in January 2024. Debris at the crash site of a junta fighter jet shot down in January 2024 innorthern Shan State’s Kutkai Township. (Photo - Myat Pan)

Officer among 18 found dead in junta helicopter downed by Kachin fighters

After the first helicopter crashed following an attack by Kachin forces near Bhamo, another helicopter was destroyed in a second attack after making an emergency landing near a junta base in Shwegu

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