An ethnic military seized 5 army junta camps close to the Myanmar-Chinese language border, residents instructed Radio Free Asia on Friday.
Throughout an offensive, the Kachin Independence Military, or KIA, captured encampments below junta Battalion 366 close to Kachin state’s Momauk township. The seizure additionally gave the ethnic armed group partial management of a China-Myanmar border commerce highway after the Thursday offensive.
Since Myanmar’s February 2021 coup, combating between the KIA and junta forces has raged for weeks at a time over the state’s profitable jade mines and the insurgent military’s historic stronghold close to its headquarters on the Myanmar-China border.
The KIA now controls parts of two main commerce roads within the state since its partial seize of the home Myitkyina-Bhamo freeway in early March, along with a junta camp below Battalion 142 in Momauk township. A battle additional north in Lai Zar induced shells to land in China, burning down a number of homes, residents stated.
One resident instructed RFA that the junta retaliated with air strikes after Yaw Yung Artillery and Hpaleng Hill camps had been captured Thursday.
“Yaw Yung was fully captured and Hpaleng camp was additionally captured yesterday,” he stated, asking to stay nameless for worry of reprisals. “The junta’s air pressure got here to open fireplace whereas KIA troops had been confiscating issues in these camps after the captures.”
Yaw Yung is a crucial strategic camp due to the high-level commander stationed there and its proximity to buying and selling posts with China, residents residing close to the captured camps stated.
Kachin military troops are at the moment stationed in Lwegel metropolis, about 11 kilometers (seven miles) from Yaw Yung Artillery camp, residents stated, including that they’re negotiating with junta troops and administration employees on their exit from the town.
RFA contacted Kachin state’s junta spokesperson Moe Min Thein and KIA spokesperson Col. Naw Bu on the junta’s give up, however neither responded.
A press release on the KIA’s Fb web page on March 28, stated three camps had been captured on the twenty seventh and two on the twenty eighth, particularly Shan Tai, Bang Yau, Legislation Mun, Hpaleng and Yaw Yung.
The KIA and joint guerilla armies have captured over 40 junta camps in Momauk and Waingmaw townships close to the KIA’s headquarters in Lai Zar metropolis in Kachin state as of Thursday.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.