Civilians are trapped in fighting between junta troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Lone Khin village tract near the jade mining hub of Hpakant in Kachin State. The regime has also reportedly arrested villagers as human shields.
Clashes broke out after around 40 junta troops entered Lone Khin on Tuesday, according to locals.
“We are trapped in our house. We can’t go out,” said a woman from the village. “They are fighting all around the village. We’ve packed our belongings so that we can leave immediately once there’s a break in the fighting.”
Two civilians were injured by junta shots, she added.
Around 100 households in Nyein Chan Tharyar ward and two others on the outskirts of Lone Khin remained trapped on Wednesday, according to residents. No updates are available.
A video acquired by The Irrawaddy shows junta soldiers arresting a dozen villagers in Lone Khin on Tuesday. Local media reported they were released at noon. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify those reports.
A Nyein Chan Thar Yar ward resident said villagers are trapped as the KIA and allied forces have blocked roads to corner junta troops. “It’s hard to escape with women and children,” he said.
KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu confirmed that clashes broke out on Tuesday when the allies ambushed advancing junta troops.
“There were clashes with mortar attacks near the village on Tuesday, but they were not very fierce. Civilians just have to stay alert,” he told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
In June last year, the KIA and allied Kachin People’s Defense Force captured three junta positions on the road leading from Mohnyin round the lake via Indawgyi to Hpakant. Together with the seizure two months earlier of a key junta outpost on Kamaing-Hpakant road, they effectively isolated the jade mining hub and junta troops who remain there.
On April 24, two columns of junta troops making up around 1,000 soldiers started advancing on Hpakant from Kamaing to the east and Mohnyin to the south. The KIA and allies carried out ambushes along the way.
The junta troops from Mohnyin are marooned at Nam Mun in the hills above Indawgyi Lake due to resistance offensives.
But the junta column from Kamaing, which comprises around 600 troops, made it to Lone Khin after seizing KIA positions in villages along the road. Around 100 of them arrived in Lelpyin in the village tract on Tuesday night and left again in three groups on Wednesday morning.
One of the groups clashed with the KIA troops, said a resistance source.
Lone Khin is just 12 km from Hpakant town.
Irrawaddy reporter Ah Htoi contributed to the report.
