The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) said it captured another Myanmar junta base in northern Shan State on Wednesday after defeating Infantry Battalion 123 in Nam Hpat Kar (Nampaka) village, Kutkai Township.
The base is crucial for control of the Lashio-Muse road, KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy. The Lashio-Muse road is a key route for border trade with the country’s biggest trading partner, China.
The fighting lasted for nearly one month before combined forces of KIA Brigades 4, 6 and 10 and the Kachin People’s Defense Force (KPDF) seized the base on Wednesday.
“We launched the attack on December 9. We seized several hill-top outposts guarding the main base some time ago, before capturing the main base on Wednesday,” said Naw Bu.
Nam Hpat Kar is located between Kutkai town, which is occupied by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the 105-mile border trade zone in Muse, occupied by the Arakan Army (AA).
The KIA seized an anti-aircraft gun and a howitzer from the junta base in Nam Hpat Kar, according to sources on the ground.
The ethnic army said more than 200 junta soldiers were deployed at the base.
It took time to gain control of Nam Hpat Kar because the base was huge and soldiers there were fresh, a military analyst commented.
“It normally takes time [to defeat junta positions]. Not every junta soldier will surrender easily,” said the analyst, adding that Laukkai in neighboring Kokang region had only fallen after a long siege.
“Nam Hpat Kar was not besieged for long as it was a new target. So, junta soldiers there had not suffered much. No one surrenders after just a few gunshots. People will only surrender after their morale is sapped by continuous attacks and they are convinced there is no escape.”
The analyst said junta troops in the border trade town of Muse have been cut off by the KIA’s seizure of Nam Hpat Kar.
Fighting between the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance and junta troops for control of Muse – the key border trade zone between Myanmar and China – is raging despite a China-brokered truce agreed by both sides on Jan. 12.
“Even before Operation 1027 was launched [by the Brotherhood Alliance in October], the KIA had seized a junta hilltop outpost in the east of Mong Paw in Muse Township. Mong Paw is adjacent to Nam Hpat Kar. So, the KIA has taken control of an area populated by Kachin people in northern Shan State,” the analyst explained.
The KIA has seized at least eight junta positions in northern Shan State, including a bridge 12 km to the north of Nam Hpat Kar, since launching its offensive on Dec. 20.
The ethnic army has also seized Man Wein Gyi village in Kachin State’s Mansi Township, which borders Namkham Township in northern Shan State.
