Over 80 Myanmar junta bases, including nearly 10 military battalion headquarters, and a town have been captured by the Brotherhood Alliance and allied resistance groups in northern Shan State and northern Mandalay Region in just over two weeks since the resumption of Operation 1027.
Approximately 80 regime forces including a lieutenant colonel and a major have been captured and dozens killed in the operation.
After the military regime repeatedly violated a China-brokered ceasefire by bombarding its territory, ethnic army the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, resumed the operation on June 25.
Alongside several resistance groups including the Mandalay People’s Defense Force (PDF) under the command of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG), the TNLA has rapidly mounted offensives against regime targets in Nawnghkio, Kyaukme, Mongmit, Hsipaw, Tangyan and Lashio townships in northern Shan State and Mogoke, Singu and Madaya townships in northern Mandalay Region.
In the earliest days of the operation, the TNLA and resistance allies took control of Kyaukme and Nawnghkio towns as well as large parts of Mogoke, a ruby mining hub.
Alongside the TNLA and local PDFs, Mandalay PDF has seized nearly 40 junta bases including police stations and the headquarters of the junta’s Air Defense Battalion in Madaya and Singu townships in the north of Mandalay Region.
On Wednesday, the TNLA and Mandalay PDF claimed to have taken complete control of Nawnghkio town after they managed to seize the headquarters of the junta’s Missile Battalion 606, the last stronghold outside the town, after two weeks of intense attacks amid heavy bombardments from junta aircraft and artillery units.
The TNLA announced that Nawnghkio had become the first town seized during Part 2 of Operation 1027. Nawnghkio is located 56 km north of Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Region, a junta garrison town and home to a number of the regime’s military defense academies.
However, Nawngkhio is at risk of junta retaliatory aerial bombardments. Military-backed cheerleaders and junta-propaganda Telegram channels eagerly urge the junta’s military to incinerate all towns that fall into the hands of the ethnic alliance and resistance allies during Phase 2 of the operation.
Meanwhile, together with allied resistance groups, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), also a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, has been engaging in fierce fighting with the regime since July 3 as it attempts to seize Lashio, the capital of northern Shan State, where the junta’s Northeastern Military command is located.
The ethnic army and its allies have so far seized two headquarters in and outside Lashio.
Nearly two dozen civilians have been killed and many others injured by shelling in the town. The regime and the TNLA blame each other for the civilian casualties. The northern Shan capital has become a ghost town as most of its residents have fled the fighting there.
However, the ethnic alliance has been tight-lipped about its offensive in Lashio.
Clashes continue to be reported in northern Shan and northern Mandalay and the junta military has continued its indiscriminate bombardments of both resistance and civilian targets.
So far, a total of 54 civilians have been killed and 82 injured, and 90 homes have been destroyed by the junta’s indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes during the operation between June 25 and July 10, the TNLA said.
Additionally, thousands of civilians have been displaced by the fighting in northern Shan and Mandalay.
In response to its losses, the junta has increasingly attacked civilians, schools, hospitals and monasteries over the last six months.
During a briefing to the national security body of Thailand, the UN special rapporteur said, “It almost appears as if the junta is trying to destroy a country that it cannot control.”
In a recent interview with The Irrawaddy, TNLA spokeswoman Nway Yay Oo said the goal of the resumption of Operation 1027 is to eradicate the military dictatorship, adding that the alliance will keep going until it reaches its goal.
She declined to comment about the expansion of the operation into Mandalay, however.
A military analyst who is closely following Operation 1027 told The Irrawaddy that the operation would enter Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, after the TNLA, Mandalay PDF and allied resistance groups managed to take Madaya, Singu and Mogoke in northern Mandalay Region.
Part 1 of Operation 1027
Along with several resistance groups, the Brotherhood Alliance comprising the TNLA, MNDAA and Arakan Army (AA) launched the major anti-regime offensive Operation 1027 across northern Shan State in October last year.
In the first three months of the operation, they seized hundreds of junta frontline bases and command centers and 24 battalion headquarters, as well as around 20 towns and vital trade routes with China, inflicting a humiliating defeat on the junta.
The operation was halted on Jan. 10 after the ethnic alliance agreed to the Beijing-brokered ceasefire with the regime.
However, the AA has continued Operation 1027 in Rakhine State and nearby Paletwa Township in Chin State since Nov. 13 last year, seizing around 11 towns or townships and hundreds of junta bases including dozens of battalion headquarters and command centers.
Chinese intervention
By blocking border trade gates, as well as electricity and internet access to areas under the control of the TNLA and the MNDAA, the Chinese government is now pressuring the ethnic alliance to stop its operation against the regime, the military analyst said.
“The TNLA and MNDAA have planned for months to resume the operation and they would have anticipated the possibility of Chinese intervention and pressure. At this moment, there is no reason for the ethnic alliance to stop the operation,” the military analyst said.
