The regime has launched a major offensive on the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and allied troops besieging the jade mining hub of Hpakant in Kachin State.
As many as 1,000 junta troops are advancing on the mountain town from Kamaing to the east and Mohnyin to the south, KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy.
“There were clashes in Indawgyi on Wednesday,” he said. “Junta troops first carried out air raids to clear the route for their ground troops.”
Junta troops and affiliated Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA) militias attacked KIA position in Sanwinkone near Nan Mun town in the hills above Indawgyi Lake on Tuesday and Thursday while the regime bombed Sanwinkone and nearby Intha villages, according to the KIA.
A nearby hospital sustained damage in the bombing raids, according to hospital administrator Dr. Soe Min on social media.
In June last year, the KIA and allied Kachin People’s Defense Force captured three junta positions on the road leading from Mohnyin round the lake via Indawgyi to Hpakant. Together with the seizure two months earlier of a key junta outpost on Kamaing-Hpakant road, they effectively isolated the jade mining hub and junta troops who remain there.
This week there were also clashes in two villages near Kamaing, where junta troops were reportedly reinforced by Warazup militias led by local warlord Min Zay Thant.
The two sides clashed on the outskirts of Kamaing on April 13, according to local sources.
Meanwhile in southern Kachin State, the regime continues its ground and aerial defenses of the district town of Bhamo, which the KIA and allied forces have been attacking for months.
“For now, clashes are taking place in Hpakant Township and Bhamo. There have been both ground attacks and aerial attacks, and we haven’t seized a new outpost yet,” Col. Naw Bu said.
The regime declared a nominal ceasefire after the magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar on March 28 but continued aerial bombings in Kachin and Karen states and Mandalay and Sagaing regions.
