To better gauge the impact of Operation 1027’s three-month anniversary on Saturday, The Irrawaddy has compiled a list of the junta’s most consequential losses.
The coordinated offensive launched on Oct. 27 last year hammered the regime with an unprecedented number of massive defeats. It also inspired other resistance groups, including other ethnic armies, to launch coordinated attacks against the military of a junta that seized power from an elected government almost three years ago.
The Brotherhood Alliance’s three members – the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) – launched Operation 1027 in northern Shan State.
Besides humiliating defeats, the junta’s military also suffered enormous losses. These ranged from jet fighters and helicopters to tanks and armored vehicles – as well as troops and officers who (besides waving the white flag) ran almost all the way to very top of the chain of command.
Massive caches of weapons and ammunition, as well as major military bases and strategic towns, were also captured by the Brotherhood Alliance and its resistance allies across the country. Here’s a snapshot.
Jets and helicopters
Two fighter jets and one military helicopter have been shot down since the launch of Operation 1027 by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) and the Karenni Army (KA) as the offensive by the Brotherhood Alliance inspired other ethnic armies and resistance forces to increase their attacks on the junta’s military.
On Jan. 16, 2024, the KIA shot down a junta FTC 2000G fighter jet near Namhpatkar in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township.
On Jan. 3, 2024, the KIA shot down a Mi-17 helicopter near its Laiza headquarters in Kachin State. The Mi-17 was carrying food supplies to junta troops when it was shot down about eight miles from Laiza.
On Nov. 10, 2023, another K8-W of the junta military was shot down by the KNDF and KA near Loikaw, the capital of Karenni (Kayah State).
Before the launch of Operation 1027, one jet fighter and three of the junta military’s helicopters were shot down since the coup.
The first was a Mi-35 helicopter. It was shot down on May 3, 2021 by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State’s Momauk Township. The KIA is the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization.
The second was an unknown type of military helicopter. It was shot down on Jan. 8, 2022 by the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) near Loikaw city in Karenni (Kayah State) while KNDF and junta troops were fighting on the ground.
On Feb. 1, 2023 February, the People’s Defense Forces of the National Unity Government announced that it shot down a junta Mi-17 helicopter in Sagaing Region’s Homalin Township while attempting to seize Shwe Pyi Aye town.
On June 30, 2023 a K8-W from Taungoo Air Force was shot down by the Karenni National People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF) near Twar Thit Town in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Bawlakae District.
A conservative estimate would put the cost of the lost aircraft, three fighter jets and four helicopters, at about US$ 75 million.
Tanks and armored vehicles
The Brotherhood Alliance seized or destroyed at least eight tanks, 16 armored vehicles and two multiple rocket launchers in the first three months of Operation 1027 in northern Shan and Rakhine states.
The MNDAA seized the most: 16 armored vehicles and tanks and two multiple rocket launchers. They were seized in northern Shan State’s Chinshwehaw, Monekoe, Theinni, Kunlong and Laukkai townships.
On Nov. 2, 2023, a combined force of TNLA and Mandalay PDF troops destroyed two junta armored vehicles in northern Shan State’s Nawnghkio Township.
Four other armored vehicles were seized by the TNLA in northern Shan and two were seized by the AA in Rakhine State.
Other ethnic armed groups also destroyed tanks and armored vehicles of the junta’s military.
The Karen National Union said its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, destroyed two tanks and an armored vehicle of the junta’s military on Jan. 4 and 5, 2024 in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi Township.
On Jan. 8, 2022, the KNDF destroyed a tank of the junta’s military near Loikaw, the capital of Karenni State.
Arms and ammunition
The Brotherhood Alliance has seized enormous caches of arms and ammunition from the junta’s military in three months. The weapons range from pistols to heavy rocket launchers. Ammunition ranges from bullets less than one inch in length to artillery shells over 100 mm.
Different types of light arms from various countries, include grenades, rocket launchers and drone jammers.
The seized caches of arms and ammunition have strengthened the Brotherhood Alliance, making it more powerful than before it launched Operation 1027, it says.
Heavy artillery
The alliance seized at least 20 pieces of heavy artillery, including howitzers, during the first three months of Operation 1027. The AA, MNDAA, and TNLA seized the artillery at strategic hilltop outposts and regional, operational command centers of the junta’s military in northern Shan and Rakhine states.
They said that the howitzers seized had been used to shell civilians on an almost daily basis.
Strategic outposts, command centers
The Brotherhood Alliance has seized over 36 strategic hilltop outposts and major command centers. These include Kutkai strategic outpost, No. 16 Military Operations Command, the bases of Infantry Battalion 125, 289, Light Infantry Battalion 129, and Laukkai Regional Operation Command.
Towns captured
The Brotherhood Alliance has seized18 towns in northern Shan, Rakhine and Chin states since the launch of Operation 1027.
Since June 2022, resistance forces and ethnic armed organizations have seized
36 towns in Kachin, Chin, Rakhine, Shan, and Karenni (Kayah) states and Sagaing and Bago regions. (This number includes those seized by the Brotherhood Alliance.)
High-ranking officers
The six brigadier generals who surrendered to the Brotherhood Alliance this month comprises the highest-ranking officers to have surrendered since the coup. It was also the first time in the history of Myanmar’s military that six brigadier generals surrendered at the same time.
The six brigadier generals surrendered on Jan. 4, giving the Brotherhood Alliance control of Laukkai town – the capital of northern Shan State’s Kokang Self-Administered Zone.
They included Brigadier General Tun Tun Myint, the acting chair of the Administrative Body of Kokang Self-administered Zone, Brigadier General Moe Kyaw Thu, the commander of Laukkai Regional Operation Command, and a brigadier general who is the commander of No. 55 Light Infantry Division. The three other brigadier generals who surrendered were the commanders of No. 12, 14 and 16 Military Operations Command centers. More than 200 other officers surrendered with them.
Brigadier General Min Min Tun is the highest-ranking of the other senior officers in the junta’s miliary captured by the Brotherhood Alliance since the launch of Operation 1027. He was the commander of 101 Light Infantry Division based in northern Shan State’s Namhsan Township. He was arrested by the TNLA soon after it seized the township on Dec. 15, 2023.
Brigadier-General Zin Myo Swe, chief of the19th Military Operations Command, fled during the AA’s attack on a junta base in Paletwa Township on Jan. 11. He was captured the following day.
On Nov. 13, 2023 the AA arrested 10 junta military personnel in Rakhine State’s Minbya Township, including Major Thant Zin Tun, deputy commander of Light Infantry Battalion 344 and Captain Phyo Zeya Hlaing, a platoon commander.
On Nov. 27, 2023, the MNDAA arrested the commander of the junta’s Infantry Battalion 69 after seizing a military outpost in northern Shan State’s Laukkai Township.
On Jan. 16, the TNLA captured a major when it seized Sakhan Thit Kone, a strategic hilltop outpost in northern Shan State.
Other high-ranking officers surrendered to other ethnic armed groups, or were captured by them, since the launch of Operation 1027.
On Nov. 19, 2023, Major Khaing Thant Moe of the junta’s air force, who served as a pilot at Taungoo Air Force Base, was arrested by combined resistance groups in a remote jungle area of Karenni State’s Hpruso Township. The K8-W trainer/fighter jet he had flown was shot down by the resistance groups on Nov. 11, 2023.
