The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) seized a junta military camp in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township on Monday, inflicting at least 30 casualties on junta forces, according to the KIA and local residents.
The camp, located in Tarmoenye town’s Daknai Village, served as the base for a company under the military’s 123rd Infantry Battalion, which is based in Namhpatkar Village. The KIA, the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), launched an attack on the camp on Sunday, and was able to seize the whole camp the next day, according to a KIA official in Kutkai.
The camp housed about 100 junta troops, dozens of whom retreated over the two days of the KIA’s assault. The KIA official said the ethnic armed group found the bodies of at least 30 dead junta troops.
As the clashes erupted without warning, hundreds of villagers from Daknai fled into nearby villages and jungle areas and have not been able to return, fearing the fighting could resume at any time, the residents said.
During the clashes, the junta’s military fired artillery shells, injuring at least three villagers, said a member of an emergency volunteer team based in Kutkai.
The military unit based in Daknai has been guarding a gold mine in the village, which is known as a source of income for the junta. The military regime shares the revenue from mining projects in northern Shan State with allied militia groups and some private companies that have ties with the junta, residents said.
The military camp in Daknai was established in 2012. The KIA launched an unsuccessful attack on it in 2021.
The Irrawaddy reached out to KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu for comment on the fighting in Tarmoenye but did not receive a reply.
Analysts monitoring the conflict in northern Shan said the KIA likely targeted Daknai because it is strategically important to the junta.
“While Operation 1027 has been escalating day by day since it began, the KIA has also exposed its movements in northern Shan with this seizure [of the camp]. Therefore, we expect to see more engagements by the KIA, probably in the Kutkai area, in the coming days,” said a conflict analyst based in Lashio.
