As its ground troops face increasingly fierce attacks from the Brotherhood Alliance in northern Shan State, the junta is unleashing heavy airstrikes and shelling in a bid to hang on to its remaining trade routes with China, local media and resistance groups said.
Junta bombs hit civilian targets on Monday as troops from the Brotherhood Alliance launched an attack to seize the 105 Mile China-Myanmar Trade Zone, targeting the junta’s strategic base in the zone, reports said.
They used drones to bomb the junta strategic hilltop base in the trade zone. The junta responded with heavy shelling and bombs from fighter jets that hit civilian targets, the reports said.
A bomb dropped on a dairy farm in the trade zone killed two civilians and injured five more, Shwe Phee Myay news outlet reported. Another blast also set two trucks and a storage facility in the zone aflame, according to the report, which cited residents of the area.
“Clashes are intensifying there as we try to seize 105 Mile trade zone,” MNDAA spokesperson Le Kyar Wen told The Irrawaddy on Monday evening.
The alliance is attacking the junta base in the zone because those inside the base have so far refused to surrender, the Brotherhood Alliance said in their statement.
Monday was day 31 of Operation 1027. The Brotherhood Alliance’s three members – the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA) – launched the operation jointly in northern Myanmar on October 27.
Since then, the three ethnic armies and allied resistance groups have taken complete control of seven towns and four main trade gates on the border with China. The alliance has also blocked the two most vital Myanmar-China trade routes in northern Shan State: Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road and Mandalay-Lashio-Chin Shwe Haw Road.
On Sunday, after fierce clashes with regime forces, the MNDAA seized the border trade gate of Kyin San Kyawt, located 7.9 miles from the 105 Mile trade zone in Muse Township.
TNLA troops also attacked a junta base at a bridge in Muse Township on Monday as well as regime forces near Kaung Mu Lain village in Kyaukme Township.
During a clash at a tollgate on the Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road, a junta fighter jet bombed the area in in Kyaukme Township, setting the tollgate, trucks and a petroleum station aflame, local media reports said.
On Monday, MNDAA and TNLA troops jointly attacked and seized a junta base on a hilltop in Kyaukme Township, according to the MNDAA.
On Monday morning, the TNLA also attacked a junta base at Mine Le Village in Lashio Township, the capital of northern Shan State, seizing a small number of weapons.
Later that day, the junta used a Y12 transport aircraft and a fighter jet to bomb three locations in Muse Township while a MI-35 helicopter was used to attack TNLA troops fighting regime forces in Lashio Township.
