The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and allied resistance groups simultaneously attacked more than 10 junta outposts along a 120-mile road near the border with China on Thursday morning, including those near its headquarters in Laiza town, as fighting in Kachin State continues to escalate.
The ethnic army also seized a mountaintop base near Laiza after defeating junta troops at 10 camps defending the base, KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy on Thursday evening.
The capture of the base was part of the KIA’s attack on outposts along the road between the state capital, Myitkyina, and Bhamo town on Thursday morning. Lazia is located about halfway between Myitkyina and Bhamo towns, near the border with China.
The outposts protect the junta’s strategic military bases along the 120-mile route through Bhamo and Waingmaw townships.
Troops from Kachin People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) and the KIA also used rocket-propelled bombs to attack the runway of the airport in Bhamo and the junta airbase in Myitkyina Thursday morning to prevent aircraft from defending the junta outposts it later attacked, Kachin media reported.
The junta outposts and bases are strategically located along the Bhamo-Myitkyina Road and threaten KIA bases in the area, the KIA said.
Civilians have been unable to use the road for months.
“Our mission is mainly aimed at the security of our territory,” Colonel Naw Bu said.
The junta responded to the Thursday morning attacks by shelling residential areas of Laiza town from one of its bases, Kachin media reported, putting the civilian death toll from the shelling at three. The number includes one child.
In the afternoon, the junta also conducted airstrikes on the areas near the outposts and near Lazia town, Kachin media reported.
KIA troops reportedly seized two junta mountaintop outposts near Laiza during Thursday morning’s attacks.
Pro-regime Lisu militia leader U Shwe Min, chairman of Lisu National Development Party, was also killed along with militia members during an attack by KIA troops in Waingmaw Township on Thursday, according to a media report.
Earlier this week, heavy clashes broke out in the state’s Hpakant Township as KIA troops continued their effort to seize the junta’s last hilltop outpost near Tar Ma Khan village. Regime forces torched Tar Ma Khan village in response and shelled the nearby town of Hpakant even though it is under their control.
The KIA and allied resistance groups launched offensives against junta targets in Tar Ma Khan village late last month as fighting for control of jade-rich Hpakant Township intensified.
The ethnic army also seized three strategic hilltop outposts from the junta’s military in Mani Township in Kachin State’s Bhamo District on Sunday.
The KIA is fighting regime forces in Kachin and northern Shan states as well as in upper Sagaing Region alongside other ethnic armies and resistance groups, including the PDFs of the civilian National Unity Government.
