Three civilians were killed and three others were injured by junta shelling and airstrikes during a clash between regime forces and the ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State’s Momauk Town on Monday.
Intense fighting broke out in the town on Monday morning when regime troops from Light Infantry Battalion 437, which is based outside the town, advanced into its center as other battalions randomly shelled civilian neighborhoods and junta jets dropped bombs, a resident who fled the town told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
Before the battalion retreated from the town on Monday evening, Momauk was pounded by shelling and airstrikes, Kachin media reported. The shelling came from junta bases in nearby Bhamo Township, while two junta fighter jets also dropped bombs.
Kachin media, citing KIA sources, said civilian homes and religious buildings in the town were damaged.
The number of KIA and junta casualties remains unknown.
“Two young men and a woman resident were killed, and two others were injured by junta shelling. Another resident was wounded by the junta airstrikes,” the Momauk resident said.
Fighting stopped in the afternoon after the troops from Light Infantry Battalion 437 retreated to their base. However, junta troops were deployed in the town again on Tuesday and they restricted residents’ movement.
Regime troops arrested three town residents on Monday and Tuesday, residents said, adding that they do not know what happened to them.
About 70 percent of the more than 9,200 residents of the town have fled since mid-March when the KIA and allies stationed themselves outside the town after seizing the headquarters of the junta’s Infantry Battalion 237 near the town.
“The rest are trapped in the town,” a resident said, adding that many of them want to escape but they are prohibited from leaving by junta forces.
The KIA and its resistance allies took control of the Momauk-Loije (Lwelge) Road and the town of Loije on the border with China after defeating several junta bases along the road.
