The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) seized a junta military camp near the border with China in northern Shan State on Thursday, Kachin News Group reported.
The camp is located at the base of Wane Lar Mountain near Mong Ko Town.
KIA troops seized the camp at about 2pm after fierce fighting began in the early morning, KIA troops told the online news group.
The Myanmar military launched airstrikes in the area in the morning and afternoon, but failed to deter the offensive, the report said.
The regime’s military suffered heavy casualties during the clash and the KIA seized a large cache of weapons and ammunition, the report said.
The seizure of the camp followed the capture of a junta military communications camp in Kachin State’s Shwegu Township on Wednesday.
KIA Battalion 12 and the Shwegu People’s Defense Force launched an early-morning attack on the base near Nag Bat Gyi Village on Shwegu-Bhamo road. They retrieved the body of a junta soldier killed in the clash, along with weapons, ammunition and rations, Shwegu PDF said.
Nga Bat Gyi camp is located slightly less than a mile from Shwegu Town, which serves as a staging post for junta troop reinforcements deployed to Kachin State via the Ayeyarwady River.
Clashes have been reported along Myitkyina-Bhamo Highway in Kachin State since early July, when the junta deployed several hundred troops to attack the KIA headquarters in Laiza Town near the Chinese border.
Last week, clashes broke out at Nam San Yang Village near Laiza Town and in Aungja Village in Momauk Township. The junta’s military launched airstrikes during the fighting, the KIA said.
KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy last week that fighting might intensify.
The KIA has also clashed with junta forces in Muse and Kutkai townships in neighboring northern Shan State. It is also fighting junta troops alongside resistance groups in upper Sagaing Region.
