Allied Chin resistance troops are attacking the two major junta bases adjacent Matupi after driving regime troops from the town on Thursday, five days after the launch of Operation Chin Brotherhood, they said.
Junta troops fled Matupi for two bases near the town – one to the south and the other to the north – after allied resistance troops captured the town’s police station and general administration office on June 13.
“We are now attacking the bases that surround the town,” a member of the Chin Brotherhood said. “Matupi is one of the main centers for the junta’s military in Chin State,” he explained, adding that casualty figures from the battle for the town had yet to be verified.
Operation Chin Brotherhood was launched on June 9 to drive junta troops out of Myanmar’s poorest state, which borders Bangladesh and India. The operation unifies a diverse range of Chin ethnic armed groups with support from Rakhine State’s Arakan Army and Magwe Region’s Yaw Army.
Matupi town is located in the state’s south and has been under martial law for more than a year.
Operation Chin Brotherhood combines troops from the Chin Brotherhood, Chin National Defense Force, People’s Defense Force-Zoland, Community Defense Force-Kanpetlet and Chinland Defense Force-Matupi. Troops from the Arakan and Yaw armies have joined the operation.
After Chin fighters seized Matupi’s police station and general administration office, junta troops fled the town for bases outside of it. A member of the Chin Brotherhood told The Irrawaddy that the two sites were the main bases for junta troops inside the town.
“After we seized them, junta forces fled the town. There are no more junta troops in the town,” he said. Government offices in Matupi are now shut and no junta civil servants are left in the town, he added.
The regime responded to the loss of Matupi’s police station and general administration office with airstrikes and shelling. It has also sent reinforcements to nearby bases by helicopter three times since fighting began.
Most of Matupi’s residents left the town before fighting began after Chin fighters warned they would attack.
Fighting is now focused on the base of the junta’s No 304 Infantry Battalion south of the town and its Strategic Infantry 140 headquarters north of the town. Once these are captured, Chin forces will have complete control of the town, a Chin Brotherhood fighter said.
About 10 days before the launch of Operation Chin Brotherhood, CDF-Matupi and other ethnic armies seized Matupi Township’s district administrative office about six miles from Matupi town on the road connecting Matupi to the state capital Hakha. About 40 junta troops had been stationed at the district office before it was seized on May 30.
Allied Chin troops also captured Kyin Dway town in Kanpetlet Township on April 29. They began fighting to take it in December of last year.
Chin fighters control most rural areas in the state as well as seven other towns: Lai Lin Pi and Rezua in Matupi Township, Hnar Rein in Thantlang Township, Hsu Khwar in Hakha Township, Rihkhawdar and Waibula in Falam Township and Ma Kwee Ain Nuu in Mindat Township.
