The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed organization that is fighting the military regime, claimed to have shot down a military chopper, killing six military personnel, in Kachin State, northern Myanmar on Wednesday morning.
Colonel Naw Bu, spokesperson for the ethnic revolutionary group, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday the KIA’s frontline troops shot down the military transport helicopter while it was flying from the regime airbase in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, to a frontline base in Waingmaw Township.
Two videos captured by local residents show a helicopter in flames crashing in a mountainous area in Waingmaw.
“The entire chopper was burnt up and all six military personnel died at the crash site. Only two of their bodies were found unburned,” said Naw Bu, citing reports from the KIA inspection team on the ground.
Junta pilot Major Zaw Myo Thant and co-pilot Captain Kaung San Thein were among the six killed.
The KIA spokesperson declined to say what kinds of weapons were used to shoot down the junta aircraft.
The military regime remained tight-lipped about one of its choppers being shot down in Kachin State, while junta-backed pro-regime Telegram channels claimed the videos were of an earlier crash in another ethnic area.
In May 2021, the KIA shot down a military helicopter during a clash in Momauk Township, Kachin State.
On Nov. 11 last year, ethnic Karenni resistance groups shot down a regime fighter jet during a clash with regime forces in Karenni (Kayah) State. A week later it arrested junta pilot Major Khaing Thant Moe, one of two pilots who ejected from the aircraft.
Clashes between the KIA and military regime troops in Kachin and northern Shan states have intensified since March 2021 when the junta killed two anti-coup protesters in Myitkyina.
Since then, the KIA has also sheltered hundreds of people including politicians and anti-coup activists fleeing arrest by the junta and provided military training to thousands of youths from elsewhere across the country looking to take up arms against the military regime.
Currently, the KIA is fighting the military regime not only in Kachin and northern Shan but also in upper Sagaing Region alongside People’s Defense Force groups (PDFs), which form the armed wing of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG).
