Less than three weeks since the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance launched its massive “Operation 1027” offensive, the Myanmar military has lost nine towns where its battalions had been based for decades.
The junta has lost control of five towns in northern Shan State – Chin Shwe Haw, Phaungsai, Monekoe, Namkham, Hseni and Kunlong – two in the resistance stronghold of Sagaing Region – Kawling and Kamphat – and Rih Kaw Dar in Chin State.
The Brotherhood Alliance, made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA), seized the border trade town of Chin Shwe Haw on Oct. 27, the first day of the offensive. Over the next few days, it took control of Phaungsai, Monekoe and Namkham.
Kunlong, where the Lashio district junta administration is based, fell on November 12. Myanmar military units have been stationed in Kunlong, the gateway to the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, since independence in 1948. In 1971, the military successfully repulsed 40 days of human-wave attacks on the town by the Communist Party of Burma (CPB).
Kunlong was under the de facto control of the Myanmar military for 75 years until it was seized by the Brotherhood Alliance after just 12 days of fighting.
Namkham, located close to the key Myanmar-China border trade town of Muse, has housed Myanmar military units continuously except for one week during the civil war in 1949. It took only 11 days for the ethnic alliance to seize the town.
Phaungsai and Monekoe fell to the CPB in 1968 during the Burma Socialist Program Party regime headed by the country’s first military dictator, Ne Win. The previous military regime finally took them back 30 years ago in 1992. The current regime lost them to the ethnic alliance within a few days.
The Brotherhood Alliance has also gained almost total control of Kyugok (Pansai) and the strategic town of Hseni in northern Shan State. Two key Myanmar-China trade routes – Lashio-Muse and Lashio-Chin Shwe Haw – converge at Hseni.
The MNDAA announced on Tuesday that its next target is northern Shan’s Laukkaing, the seat of the junta-appointed administrative body of Kokang Self-Administered Zone on the Chinese border.
The ethnic alliance has so far seized at least 144 junta positions.
On Nov. 3, a resistance alliance including the People’s Defense Force under the civilian National Unity Government occupied Kawlin, a district-level town in Sagaing Region.
Kamphat in Sagaing’s Tamu District fell on Nov. 7.
Resistance forces are currently besieging Tigyaing town in Sagaing.
On Nov. 12, the Chin National Front (CNF) and allied resistance forces seized Rih Kaw Dar town on the Myanmar-India border in Chin State.
South of Chin State, a fragile year-long truce in Rakhine was shattered on Monday when fighting broke out between junta troops and the Arakan Army. The ethnic Rakhine armed group has seized border outposts and captured junta troops up to the ranks of captain and major, on the latest front opened in Operation 1027.
On Monday alone, junta border guards at nearly 40 Rakhine outposts fled to major military bases due to fear of resistance attacks.
In Kayah (Karenni) State, Karenni resistance forces are fighting for control of Loikaw, where they have seized around nine junta positions.
Meanwhile, the counteroffensive vowed by junta boss Min Aung Hlaing early this month has failed to materialize as his regime continues to lose one town after another to resistance forces.
