The Kachin Independence Army shot down a junta jet fighter in northern Shan State on Tuesday, making it the second regime aircraft it downed in less than two weeks.
“We can confirm we have taken down a jet fighter,” KIA Colonel Nawbu told The Irrawaddy, adding that he had not yet received all the details. The KIA is one of the oldest ethnic armed groups in Myanmar. It has been at the forefront of the resistance to the regime.
On Jan. 3, troops from the ethnic army shot down a military transport helicopter while it was flying from the regime airbase in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, to a frontline base in Waingmaw Township, killing all six people onboard.
Today, the plane was shot down in Kutkai Township where the KIA has been trying to seize the headquarters of the regime’s Infantry Battalion 123 near Nampaka village.
The KIA has been trying to seize the battalion’s headquarters since the last week of December. It captured Nampaka village in the first week of January.
On Nov. 11 last year, ethnic resistance groups in southern Myanmar’s shot down a regime fighter jet in Karenni (Kayah) State. A week later, they arrested junta pilot Major Khaing Thant Moe, one of two pilots who ejected from the aircraft before it crashed.
Clashes between the KIA and military regime troops in Kachin and northern Shan states have intensified since March 2021 when the junta killed two anti-coup protesters in Myitkyina.
Since then, the KIA has also sheltered hundreds of people – including politicians and anti-coup activists fleeing arrest by the junta – and provided military training to thousands of youths from across the country looking to take up arms against the military regime.
Currently, the KIA is fighting the military regime not only in Kachin and northern Shan but also in upper Sagaing Region alongside People’s Defense Forces, which form the armed wing of the civilian National Unity Government.
The junta has been using its air power against resistance forces as well as civilians, especially those living in resistance strong holds. It has been accused of war crimes for bombing civilians.
