The Chinland Council (CC) says it has seized the last regime outpost on the strategic Timit Plain between the Chin State capital of Hakha and Thantlang following a two-week offensive.
CC forces led by the Chin National Army (CNA) captured the outpost, located on a mountain overlooking the plain, on Sunday, according to a member of the Chinland Council.
“Joint forces under the Chinland Council attacked the military outpost on Otto Mountain on Sunday morning and we were able to seize it at around 5 pm in the evening,” he said.
CC forces, led by the CNA, the armed wing of the Chin National Front (CNF), launched “Operation Jericho” to capture Timit Plain in late November. They have now seized all seven junta outposts between Hakha and Thantlang.
Formed last December, the CC serves as the political body overseeing the Chinland government.
CC forces captured the first of the seven regime outposts, Point No. 3, on November 26, before seizing the Ruavazung outpost five days later in a fierce battle that killed at least 13 junta soldiers, including the commander of Infantry Battalion 222 and three other officers. The Chin forces also captured 19 junta soldiers and a large cache of weapons and ammunition at Ruavazung, located on Ki Yam Mountain.
The neighboring outposts at Umpu Puaknak and Nawn Thluak Bo were seized on the same day, resulting in several more junta casualties and arms and ammunition seizures. A CC member reported that two more outposts in the vicinity were defeated in the following days.
“Clearing junta outposts from the 35-kilometer stretch of the Timit River plain between Hakha and Thantlang gives Chinland Council revolutionary forces a strategic edge over the junta’s military,” a conflict analyst explained.
He said Timit Plain offers Chin forces a platform to launch attacks on Hakha, which remains under junta control. He added that controlling the area would also allow the CC to cut off the junta’s supply and reinforcement route to Thantlang.
The CC-allied Chin Brotherhood Alliance (CBA) is currently attacking junta positions in the townships of Mindat and Falam, to the north and south of Timit Plan respectively.
Since the popular uprising against the 2021 coup, newly formed Chin resistance groups have allied with the CNA to seize 11 towns across Chin State. Meanwhile, the Arakan Army has seized Paletwa and Sami towns on the southern border with Rakhine State.
