Myanmar’s junta is preparing to defend Madaya Township in Mandalay Region amid anti-regime advances.
Mandalay People’s Defense Force (PDF) and other resistance groups based in Madaya Township attacked 1014 Air Defence Battalion in Ingyin Myaing village near the Sedawgyi Dam east of Madaya on Tuesday morning, according to residents. The regime reportedly responded with airstrikes.
Madaya borders Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin townships and Nawnghkio Township in Shan State to the east and Sagaing Region to the west. Mandalay city is about an hour’s drive away.
The air defence battalion has allegedly fallen but The Irrawaddy could not verify the reports.
The regime has tightened security on roads leading to Madaya and is conducting patrols, according to residents.
A Madaya resident said junta soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militia allies were preparing to defend the town.
Fighting broke out in Mogoke and Madaya townships and Kyaukme, Nawnghkio and Hsipaw townships in northern Shan State on Tuesday.
Fighting stopped after China brokered a ceasefire in northern Shan State on January 10, ending the Brotherhood Alliance’s Operation 1027.
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), one of the three members of the Brotherhood Alliance that carried out Operation 1027, said the regime repeatedly violated the ceasefire with frequent shelling and airstrikes on its troops and civilians.
Residents remain in Madaya but schools were closed on Tuesday and junta troops checked people at the town’s entrances, according to a resident.
“Junta soldiers carried out tight checks on vehicles. All the villages west of the town are Pyu Saw Htee strongholds. Even the female villagers are Pyu Saw Htee,” he told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
A Madaya Township People’s Defense Team member said: “Madaya is the main fortress defending Mandalay city, where the military’s Central Command is based. They have heavily reinforced Madaya with around 800 troops and militia members.”
Madaya is crucial for the regime to prevent further attacks on Mogoke and Nawnghkio where it is fighting with the TNLA, he added. The town is also adjacent to Pyin Oo Lwin, the seat of the military academies.
A military analyst said: “Fighting is taking place in Madaya and Mogoke, north of Mandalay, and in Nawnghkio, Kyaukme and Hsipaw east of Pyin Oo Lwin. Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin are now under direct threat.”
Fellow Brotherhood Alliance member, the Arakan Army, has seized around half of Rakhine State. The other member, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, has not yet joined the TNLA in renewed fighting in northern Shan State.
