Another entire junta battalion surrendered to the Brotherhood Alliance in northern Shan State on Tuesday, the 33rd day of Operation 1027 – the coordinated offensive in northern Myanmar led by three ethnic armies that has proven that the junta’s heavily armed military is far from invisible.
The offensive has also inspired other resistance forces across Myanmar to step up attacks against the once-powerful and still hated military, known as the Tatmadaw in Myanmar.
Brotherhood Alliance member the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) said that the entire Light Infantry Battalion 125 surrendered to it in Konkyan Township of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, which is located along the border with China in northern Shan State.
MNDAA spokesperson Le Kyar Wen told the media on Wednesday that the number of junta solders who surrendered was still being verified.
The battalion’s surrender gives the ethnic Kokang army complete control of Konkyan, the northernmost part of Kokang Self-Administered Zone.
Three ethnic armies – the MNDAA, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Arakan Army – jointly launched Operation 1027 on October 27, swiftly seizing a massive number of junta bases and towns across northern Shan and Rakhine states as well as in upper Sagaing and Mandalay regions.
Other resistance groups, including the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) – the armed wings of the civilian National Unity Government – and powerful ethnic armies have been following the Brotherhood Alliance by stepping up attacks on regime targets and bases across the country to support Operation 1027.
An estimated 500 regime troops have surrendered or abandoned their bases since the Brotherhood Alliance launched the offensive.
On Nov. 12, all of Light Infantry Battalion 129 – 127 soldiers and 134 or their family members –surrendered by transferring their base, weapons and ammunition to the MNDAA and allied resistance groups in northern Shan State’s Laukkaing Township.
Each member of the battalion, which had been led by Major Kyaw Ye Aung, was given 1 million Kyats (about US$476) and evacuated to safety by the Brotherhood Alliance.
On October 20, 41 troops from Light Infantry Battalion 143 also surrendered to the MNDAA, abandoning their base near Kan Mong Village in northern Shan State’s Kunlong Township.
The troops who raised the white flag were allowed to return to their families after the MNDAA gave them money to cover their travel expenses.
Due to massive, coordinated offensives since Oct. 27, the regime has lost nearly 300 bases, over a dozen towns and control of the main trade routes between Myanmar and China.
Its military – which proved to be overstretched at the launch of the offensive – has lost hundreds of soldiers since then.
