Fighting intensified on Monday morning in villages to the north and south of the strategic town of Madaya in upper Mandalay Region as resistance groups launched coordinated offensives on regime targets around the town, residents and members of People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) said.
The attacks show resistance allies pushing Operation 1027, which began in northern Shan State late last year, south, after expanding to Mandalay’s Mogoke Township late last month.
Madaya is just a one-hour drive north of Myanmar’s second-largest city and is considered critical for defending Mandalay from attack from the north. It lies on National Highway 31, a major transport route in central and northeast Myanmar linking Mandalay city with Kachin State’s capital, Myitkyina.
On Monday morning resistance forces attacked junta positions in Htee Taw Moe village, to the north of Madaya. An engineering corps and a recruitment unit are based in the village about 12 kilometers north of Madaya.
To the south, they attacked junta checkpoints in a pair of villages known as North and South Tangar.
A member of Madaya Township People’s Defense Force (PDF) told The Irrawaddy on Monday: “Fighting erupted in Htee Taw Moe in the early morning. Junta battalions in Madaya town are providing artillery support. Fighting is also taking place in Tangar.”
About 100 regime soldiers and members of affiliated Pyu Saw Htee militias were sent to reinforce north and south Tangar, residents of the villages said. Regime troops have also reportedly mounted artillery on a brick building in north Tangar village.
A member of the Madaya Township PDF said: “Family members of the junta troops in Htee Taw Moe were brought back to Mandalay [city] on Sunday. Civilians there have fled to nearby villages. Displaced civilians are not allowed to pass Shwe Kyin checkpoint [outside Madaya town], so many remain in villages.”
Mandalay PDF has captured 11 junta positions, including police stations, in rural areas of Madaya and Singu townships, it said. The police station in Yenantha village, about 9 km from Madaya town, fell last Thursday. Singu is north of Madaya.
One Madaya resident told The Irrawaddy on Monday morning: “The Tangar villages are very close to Madaya. The regime is concerned that the fighting might spread to Madaya town when those villages fall. So, it is making a strong stand there and has sent reinforcements.” The source added that regime troops have also been shelling to the northeast and south of Madaya town.
The regime blockaded Madaya town last Thursday morning after fighting broke out on June 25 along the Mandalay-Mogoke Road.
About 80 percent of Madaya’s residents have fled the town.
“Madaya is almost deserted now. Only junta soldiers and a few residents are left in the town. Junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee militia members are deployed in high-rise buildings in the town,” one resident said.
Madaya has five wards and, before the fighting, its population exceeded 23,000 people.
Villagers in western Madaya Township, a Pyu Saw Htee stronghold, have also fled their homes, residents of the township say.
A member of Madaya PDF said: “Notorious Pyu Saw Htee militia members and their families in western Madaya have fled. They are afraid of the junta’s indiscriminate air raids. They did not even take the loot [from previous raids on villages] with them as they fled. This shows they have no trust in the regime.”
The regime is using a howitzer on a football field in Madaya to shell targets south and northeast of the town. Sections of National Highway 31 linking Madaya, Singu and Thabeikkyin townships in upper Mandalay have been closed since fighting between resistance and junta forces broke out on June 25.
Media outlet Voice of Wetlet Madaya reported that a 50-year-old woman was killed and four more civilians, including two children aged 6 and 11, were wounded when a junta fighter jet dropped a 200-lb bomb and a gunship strafed Yone Pin village east of Madaya town on Sunday.
Junta troops in camouflage were reportedly deployed near almost all bridges along the Madaya-Mandalay Road on Monday.
