Ta’ang armed group, allies advance in Mandalay Region and northern Shan State

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and allied resistance members have seized a battalion base in northern Shan State and more junta outposts in a Mandalay Region gem-mining township since Thursday, according to locals and anti-junta fighters. The TNLA’s press team said the group led resistance forces in taking over the Myanmar army’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 114 base three miles southwest of Nawnghkio, northern Shan State at around 9pm Thursday evening. While casualty figures and other details about the capture of the LIB 114 base are unconfirmed at the time of reporting, the TNLA’s spokespersons released several photos showing a large haul of weapons and ammunition seized from another battalion base—the LIB 115 base in Nawnghkio Township—the day before. A Nawnghkio resident also told Myanmar Now that junta warplanes had conducted multiple airstrikes on Friday morning near the junta’s Artillery Battalion 606 base two miles south of Nawnghkio, which had come under siege by the TNLA and its allies. “A fighter jet and a Y-12 light aircraft bombed several times near the artillery base this morning. The Y-12 aircraft is still hovering over the town,” the Nawangkio resident said. While the TNLA’s information team had initially reported the capture of junta Artillery Battalion 606 on Thursday, they later corrected their statement, saying the base was “still under attack by anti-regime forces.” The LIB-115 and LIB-114 bases are among dozens of junta outposts the Ta’ang ethnic armed group claims to have taken over with support from their allies in northern Shan State since Tuesday, the day the group relaunched an offensive against the Myanmar military, ending a ceasefire that had been in force since January. Clashes in Kyaukme, another northern Shan State town some 30 miles northeast of Nawnghkio, also showed no sign of abating on Thursday and Friday. The TNLA, joined by members of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) under the command of the National Unity Government, continued their efforts to push junta forces out of the township and take control. While the alliance of TNLA and PDF fighters has already taken effective control of Kyaukme Township’s urban wards, various bases in the township remain under the regime forces’ control. Locals said clashes are also ongoing in Kyat Pyin village in Mandalay Region’s Mogok Township, which borders Kyaukme and Nawnghkio townships to the north. “The fighting began at around 11am this morning,” a Kyat Pyin resident said. “Junta troops are holding their last position at a four-storey building near the village police station.” Locals added that nearly all of the regime forces’ hilltop outposts, including the LIB 248 tactical base, have now fallen under anti-junta fighters’ control in western Mogok Township. In the three days since the TNLA and its PDF allies resumed offensive operations against the military, they have overrun at least five junta outposts in Mogok Township, according to the TNLA’s spokespersons. Mogok is famous in Myanmar as a source of gemstones, and its name has become synonymous with the ruby industry, which is largely controlled by military-owned companies and is an important source of revenue for the junta. Myanmar is one of the world’s two largest ruby suppliers, and close to 90 percent of the country’s ruby extraction occurs in Mogok Township.

Ta’ang armed group, allies advance in Mandalay Region and northern Shan State

Forces led by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army continued to captured junta bases in northern Shan State and Mogok Township, a hub for ruby and gemstone production in Mandalay Region

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