Myanmar Junta Jets Target Kachin Resistance Forces
By The Irrawaddy 25 November 2022
Myanmar’s junta has carried out airstrikes for two consecutive days on the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) Brigade 8 headquarters in Mohnyin Township, Kachin State.
KIA sources reported two airstrikes on Monday and three fighters bombed twice near a brigade training ground on Tuesday.
Jets dropped four bombs weighing an estimated 500 pounds. One did not explode, the source told The Irrawaddy.
“They bombed the ethnic Kachin village of Darwel. We don’t know about casualties. Two people were injured near the training ground. They dropped 500-pound bombs,” he said.
The airforce also bombed Banmauk and Katha townships on the border of Kachin State and Sagaing Region on Monday.
Pamone village in western Banmauk was bombed on Monday afternoon and a religious building burned down, according to the KIA source.
Fighters fired along the Kwekauk River to the north of Chaungwa village in Katha Township, the Katha People’s Defense Force told the Kachin media.
On October 23 jets dropped three bombs on a music concert in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, to mark the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization, the KIA’s political wing.
Approximately 80 people, including the KIA Brigade 9’s commander and other KIA members, were killed. Brigade 8’s commander was arrested by the regime in August in Myitkyina Township.
A military analyst said the regime is targeting the border between Sagaing and Kachin to disrupt weapons supplies to resistance groups in Chin State and Sagaing and Magwe regions. He also said junta troops could not pass beyond the border region.
“If [the resistance] can establish strongholds there, it is easy to deliver weapons to Sagaing, Magwe and Chin. Weapons and ammunition from the border are delivered to Sagaing, Magwe and Chin through Kachin. The regime is bombing because it wants to crush those areas,” he said.
Another analyst said the regime is bombing because its ground troops cannot fight resistance groups on the Sagaing-Kachin border and the KIA in Kachin.
