A new military offensive in the northern part of Sagaing Region’s Kalay Township has displaced at least 27,000 people since late last week, according to local resistance sources.
The area, which has seen relatively little fighting since Myanmar’s military seized power more than two years ago, started coming under attack from a column of around 100 regime troops on March 30, the sources said.
They added that the military also began carrying out airstrikes and heavy shelling in the area the following day, as local resistance forces clashed with the junta’s ground forces.
“The infantry troops were crouching down and waiting between the villages of Pyin Taw U and Nan Saung Pu when a fighter aircraft arrived and started firing,” said a senior leader of the Chin National Organisation (CNO), one of the groups involved in the fighting.
Pyin Taw U and Nan Chaung are both located about 25km north of the town of Kalay, near the border with Chin State. They are among more than a dozen villages reportedly affected by the regime offensive.
Junta troops from Infantry Battalion 228, based about 15km to the south, fired heavy artillery in the direction of the villages throughout the weekend, sources in the area told Myanmar Now.
“They kept firing, day and night. They also had the type of gun that can fire two shells at once,” said a local man who did not want to be named.
On Tuesday afternoon, military aircraft dropped several bombs near Pyin Taw U, the CNO leader said. Three junta helicopters were also used to fire on the surrounding area and transport reinforcements into the village, he added.
There were also junta troops stationed in the nearby village of Nyaung Kone as of late Tuesday, according to local residents.
The offensive comes despite the lack of any recent fighting in the township, according to an officer of the Ranger Kalay Defence Force, another group active in the area.
“The military situation in the southern part of Kale Township is quite calm,” he said, before adding that resistance forces still have a strong presence in the north of the township.
The area also has two villages—Se Taw U and Kyaung Taik—under the control of the Pyu Saw Htee, a military-backed militia, he added.
Among the villages affected by the junta offensive are Chan Thar Gyi, Mauk Lin, Sa Meik Kwin, Nan Chaung, Pyin Taw U, Gyoe Gyar Kwin, Min Hla, Let Pan Chaung, and Myauk Chaw Taw, most of whose residents have been forced to flee.
Two civilians and a member of a local defence team were injured in the fighting, according to locals. No other casualty figures were available at the time of reporting.
Kalay was among the first townships in Myanmar to take up arms against the military after it seized power in a coup on February 1, 2021.
Most previous attacks have targeted the southern part of the township, including its administrative centre, where the junta used extreme force to crush anti-coup protests.
