In its latest battlefield victory, an ethnic alliance that has been waging war against the regime across northern Shan State seized full control of Kunlong, a strategically located town in northern Shan State, on Sunday after a 12-day offensive.
“We have seized the whole town. We have occupied all the junta bases including the hill-top outpost housing their tactical command, on both the eastern and western banks of the Salween River,” Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) spokesman Ko Yang Yang confirmed to The Irrawaddy.
Since Oct. 27, the alliance and allied anti-regime resistance forces have overrun many junta military positions in northern Shan State and neighboring Sagaing Region. So far they have seized more than 130 outposts as well as towns like Hseni and Chin Shwe Haw near the Chinese border, among others.
The Brotherhood Alliance, a tripartite military alliance made up of the MNDAA, Arakan Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army, launched attacks on junta positions in Kunlong on Nov. 1, and were able to seize some parts of the town on the eastern bank of the Salween River the following day.
Since then, allied forces had attacked junta positions, including the tactical command, sprawling on the western bank of the river on the outskirts of the town. With the fall of the military base, the alliance now has complete control of the town, a major hub on a Myanmar-China trade route.
A video file released by the MNDAA after it seized Kunlong shows allied resistance forces in a junta headquarters in the town with seized armored and other military vehicles, as well as large piles of weapons.
Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun told pro-junta media on Friday that junta forces in Kunlong were putting up a strong defense against the ethnic alliance because of Kunlong’s strategic location.
Kunlong is a historic source of pride for the Myanmar military. In 1971, its troops managed to repulse 40 days of “human-wave” attacks on the town by the Communist Party of Burma. The military even produced a propaganda film about the fighting. It lost Kunlong to the Brotherhood Alliance in just 12 days, however.
