The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and its allies on Tuesday resumed attacking three junta battalions that serve as a buffer to a military command center in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State, the ethnic army’s spokesman Colonel Naw Bu said.
“We restarted the offensive using heavy artillery in Mansi and Momauk [townships] this morning,” Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. “We are exchanging shelling with junta troops in Bhamo [township].”
Mansi and Momauk are located to the south and east of Bhamo, respectively. The junta’s 21st Military Operation Command center is based in Bhamo town, near the southern tip of Kachin State.
The KIA and its allied People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) are attacking three light infantry battalions in Mansi and Momauk: 319 and 601 in the former and 437 in the latter.
The three battalions provide a buffer to the 21st Military Operation Command center in Bhamo town.
The KIA and allied PDFs attacked Momauk and Mansi towns on May 7, seizing police stations and junta outposts, but were unable to capture battalion headquarters.
Control of Kachin State’s southernmost townships is critical for the KIA’s effort to protect its headquarters, control roads to China and prevent the junta from reinforcing or supplying its bases elsewhere in the state. Since launching an offensive on junta targets along the road linking the state capital Myitkina and Bhamo town in March, the KIA and its allies have pushed junta troops into Bhamo, in an effort to isolate them there.
The regime is hitting back against the latest coordinated attack on its battalions in Mansi and Momauk with artillery, drones and fighter jets. Junta soldiers who fled from other bases in southern Kachin State, particularly near the border with China, have joined the battalions in Mansi and Momauk.
Col Naw Bu said the KIA and its allies face major challenges in the two townships. “First, the use of air support is heavy. Second, there are many of them,” he said. “All the junta soldiers who fled hilltop outposts have joined the [battalions in Mansi and Momauk]. Those battalions are close to Bhamo and can be easily reinforced. They are also using many drones and heavy artillery,” he explained.
“It will take time to seize the battalions,” the colonel said.
One military analyst estimated that each battalion in Mansi and Momauk has about 500 troops. The KIA will be able to seize Bhamo relatively easily if it can defeat all three battalions, he said.
“It is difficult to attack battalion headquarters. Their compounds are huge and fortified with trenches and bunkers. If Mansi and Momauk fall, anti-regime forces will be able to attack Bhamo from the east and the south,” the analyst said.
Besides the command center, Bhamo town is home to the frontline headquarters of the 88th Light Infantry Division, Artillery Battalion 366 and other combat support units.
Many residents have fled Mansi and Momauk to Bhamo town.
Junta artillery strikes have inflicted civilian casualties.
Three residents of a village in Momauk were killed by shelling on April 22, a Bhamo-based charity worker said. A child in Shwezi village northeast of Bhamo town also needed surgery after being hit by shrapnel, the charity worker said. The charity has helped at least 10 civilians injured by junta artillery strikes, he said.
“The fighting is mainly taking place in Mansi and Momauk, but shells have sometimes landed on villages in Bhamo Township. We can hear junta battalions in Bhamo shelling Mansi and Momauk. I can hear it now,” he told The Irrawaddy on Monday afternoon.
Junta troops have blockaded sections of roads between Bhamo and Mansi, and between Bhamo and Momauk, making it difficult to send injured people to Bhamo for hospital care.
Thousands of displaced people from Mansi and Momauk townships are taking shelter at churches and monasteries in Bhamo, according to Bhamo-based charities.
