The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and its allies seized three strategic hilltop outposts from the junta military in Mansi Township in Kachin State’s Bhamo District on Sunday afternoon, according to KIA soldiers and resistance forces on the ground.
On March 1, the KIA and the Kachin People’s Defense Force (KPDF) started launching attacks on the three outposts on Maji Gung Hill near Tamaw Village in Mansi.
Troops from the junta’s Infantry Battalions 102 and 250 and Light Infantry Battalion 427 were stationed at the outposts.
“It took three days for us to be able to completely seize all the outposts. We also seized two 105-mm howitzers and many other arms and pieces of ammunition,” said a KIA officer on the ground.
During the fighting, a KIA officer was killed and five KPDF members were injured, while the junta’s military suffered many casualties.
Clashes between the junta’s military and combined forces of the KIA and PDF also intensified in the area around Tar Ma Khan Village in Hpakant Township on Sunday and Monday. A junta military column was ambushed by the KIA on Sunday after the column raided Tar Ma Khan Village and torching houses there, according to residents.
The junta has cut off internet services in all townships in Kachin State since Friday, including the capital Myitkyina.
The KIA and its allies started attacking the junta outposts in Mansi Township in January. Mansi is located on the border with northern Shan State and is considered strategically important by both sides.
Within two months the KIA and its allies have seized the Kai Htik, Balawng Dingsa and Si Khan Gyi outposts, and in Man Wein Gyi Village they have seized a police station, a military outpost and a border gate.
