The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and allies seized another seven Myanmar junta frontline bases and two battalion headquarters in northern Shan State and northern Mandalay Region in four days of attacks up to Sunday.
Junta troops responded by indiscriminately bombarding the towns, killing civilians and destroying houses, according to local reports.
Last week, junta soldiers also blew up five bridges and destroyed roads to northern Shan State’s capital of Lashio, which has been encircled by ethnic armed groups and their resistance allies.
The TNLA resumed Operation 1027 in northern Shan’s Kyaukme, Nawnghkio and Mongmit townships and the neighboring ruby town of Mogoke in northern Mandalay Region last Tuesday (June 25). It has since seized over 30 junta frontline bases, police stations and battalion headquarters.
The TNLA has also taken control of Kyaukme and Nawnghkio towns and seized a large area of Mogoke.
On Sunday, TNLA troops and allied People’s Defense Forces (PDF) managed to seize the junta’s Shwe Myat Won base in Mogoke town after 11 hours of fighting.
The TNLA and PDF are now attacking two more junta positions in the town, at Shwe Lake Pyar and the residential ward of Shwe Thayar.
On Saturday, the TNLA and PDF captured two bases in the east of Mogoke town, seizing several weapons along with the bodies of 10 regime troops.
The TNLA and allies said they also captured the junta’s Kin Chaung base in northern Shan’s Mongmit Township on Sunday night, a day after launching attacks on five Mongmit bases.
TNLA-led forces meanwhile continued their efforts to seize Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 606 headquarters in Nawnghkio on Sunday evening. The junta used MI 35 helicopter gunships to defend the battalion on Saturday, after losing the nearby Light Infantry Battalion 114 HQ along with a large cache of weapons and ammunition on Thursday.
On Friday, the TNLA and PDFs also attacked Light Infantry Battalions 501 and 502 in nearby Kyaukme after seizing a junta base in the township a day earlier.
After losing control of the towns, the junta deployed a fighter jet to drop 500lb bombs on Kyaukme town on Sunday night, destroying a hotel, a monastery and 20 houses. On Saturday night, it used the same sized bombs to destroy eight homes in Nawnghkio town, the TNLA said.
Twenty-two civilians have been killed and 30 injured by indiscriminate junta air and artillery strikes in Kyaukme, Nawnghkio and Mogoke townships during the first five days of Operation 1027’s relaunch. Another 3,000 have been displaced by the fighting, the TNLA said.
The junta dynamited five bridges linking villages to Lashio on Tuesday and Thursday. Regime troops also destroyed three sections of the Lashio-Mong Yaw Road in Lashio Township on June 13.
The ethnic Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) meanwhile reported that a fierce clash broke out in northern Lashio Township on Saturday when Battalion 579 advanced into MNDAA territory. Two resistance fighters were killed and three others injured, but regime forces retreated from the area, the MNDAA said. Junta bases in Lashio town retaliated by shelling resistance areas.
The MNDAA warned that clashes will intensify in northern Shan because troops under coup leader Min Aung Hlaing are ignoring the ceasefire brokered by China in January.
Operation 1027 was launched in northern Shan by the Brotherhood’s TNLA, MNDAA and Arakan Army (AA) from Rakhine State on October 27 last year.
During three months of fighting, the Brotherhood seized several hundred junta frontline bases and military command centers, plus 24 battalion headquarters, around 20 towns, and vital trade routes with China.
The operation was halted on January 10 after the ethnic alliance agreed to a Beijing-brokered ceasefire with the regime.
However, the TNLA resumed the operation last Tuesday after repeated junta bombardments of TNLA territory in June killed both fighters and civilians.
The resumption of fighting last week also brought the surrender of 53 junta soldiers including a major and four army captains, the TNLA said.
