The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has seized more than 20 military outposts and bases since it and its allies launched a coordinated attack on junta targets along a major road near the border with China in Kachin State last week, a KIA spokesman said.
“Since March 7, we have seized over 20 targets from the military junta. Among them, about 10 bases are important for us strategically. The rest are outposts that support the main bases,” KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
The KIA and its allies captured two major junta bases near its headquarters in Laiza Town on the weekend, after launching simultaneous attacks on the junta’s military outposts and bases along the 120-mile-long Myitkyina-Bhamo Road last Thursday morning.
The two bases seized on the weekend are Kasen Kawng and Hkaya Bum.
Kasen Kawng was captured on Saturday and Hkaya Bum on Sunday evening, Colonel Naw Bu said. Kasen Kawng base is about five miles west of Laiza and almost 50 junta troops were stationed at it, he added.
Kachin media reported that the commanding officer and tactical operations commander of the Myanmar military were at Kasen Kawng base when those inside it surrendered to resistance forces. Colonel Naw Bu said this was false.
The senior Myanmar military officers had moved to Hkaya Bum base when the KIA seized the base of Infantry Battalion 142 in Dotphoneyan town on Friday, but when the KIA captured Hkaya Bum base on Sunday evening its troops did not find senior Myanmar military officers in the base, Colonel Naw Bu explained.
He said the KIA had yet to tally casualty figures for either side for the fighting that erupted on March 7. The number of weapons and amount of ammunition seized had also not yet been tallied, the colonel said.
Kasen Kawng is an important base militarily for the KIA because it is a threat to Lazia. Junta troops had shelled the town and the area around it from the base.
After capturing it, the KIA took over nearby Khaya Bum outpost on Sunday evening, Colonel Naw Bu said.
He also said the KIA and allied forces are continuing to attack junta bases in the three townships that the Myitkyina-Bhamo Road passes through: Bhamo, Momauk and Waingmaw.
Junta aircraft have been bombing areas around bases under attack by resistance forces as well as nearby villages.
About 900 residents of Waingmaw Township’s Koe Mile (Nine Mile) village remain trapped in it. The village is controlled by junta troops who will not let residents flee.
Residents of the village are hiding in hand-dug bomb shelters as junta jets pound the village daily, one resident of the village said. She said that bombs dropped on the village killed three women and injured three children, aged four, 12 and 13, on Thursday.
“We are not allowed to leave the village and go to a safe zone. Junta soldiers ordered us to stay in the village. We only have rice and salt to eat,” she said.
