The Myanmar junta suffered another significant defeat on Thursday, with Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, falling into the hands of ethnic resistance groups after a major military operations command surrendered to attacking rebel armies.
Meanwhile, the junta lost a number of other positions, including a strategic base, and more troops over the past four days as People’s Defense Force groups (PDFs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) stepped up attacks on regime targets across the country.
Incidents were reported in Shan and Rakhine states and Bago, Magwe and Sagaing regions.
The Irrawaddy has collected the following reports of significant attacks from PDFs and EAOs.
Some military casualties could not be independently verified.
MNDAA seizes Kokang capital as regional operations command surrenders
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) has taken complete control of Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, also known as Shan State Special Region 1, in the north of the state on Thursday as the Laukkai Regional Operations Command, the regime’s biggest military command center in the area, surrendered to the rebel group.
A video shows junta soldiers handing weapons and ammunition over to MNDAA troops and soldiers and their family members preparing to evacuate in vehicles.
The Brotherhood Alliance comprising the MNDAA, Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA), along with several resistance groups, launched the major offensive Operation 1027 across northern Shan State on Oct. 27 last year. Since then it has seized over 300 junta bases, around 10 towns and several vital China-Myanmar trade routes.
On Thursday, clashes were reported in Kutkai, Kyaukme and Mongmit townships in northern Shan as the TNLA attacked junta bases. Also as part of Operation 1027, the AA clashed with regime forces in many townships in northern Rakhine State on the same day.
Junta loses strategic base in Shan not far from Defense Academy
Many regime forces were killed and some others including Lieutenant Colonel Thet Aung were captured in Nawnghkio Township, northern Shan State on Wednesday when forces of Mandalay PDF under the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) jointly raided a strategic junta base defended by 200 troops in Than Bo Village.
The junta base is only 25 km from the military’s Defense Services Academy in the regime garrison town of Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Region. The resistance groups attacked the base on Tuesday and occupied it the next morning, seizing a large haul of weapons and ammunition.
During the raid, the resistance forces also ambushed three military vehicles carrying reinforcements from nearby Kyaukme Township that was half way to Than Bo, killing more soldiers.
Regime targets bombed by drones in Magwe
Salingyi Special Task Force (SSTF) said it and other local resistance groups used improvised remote-controlled airplanes to drop 24 bombs on junta bunkers and a food storage building in the pro-regime village of Thayet Khwa in Myaing Township, Magwe Region on Wednesday.
Many regime soldiers and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia members are thought to have been killed or injured as the drone bombs directly hit their targets, the resistance group said.
The group said it also conducted drone strikes on regime forces and civil servants commemorating Myanmar’s Independence Day in Pale town, Sagaing Region on Thursday.
Eight military sentry bases seized in Bago
The Defense Ministry of the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) said its armed wing, the People’s Defense Force (PDF), and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)—the armed wing of the country’s oldest revolutionary group, the Karen National Union (KNU)—jointly raided and occupied eight junta sentry camps in Gone Te Village near Kanyutkwin town in Phyu Township, Bago Region during dawn raids on Thursday.
Before the raids, the combined resistance groups used mines to blow up a bridge on the Yangon-Naypyitaw-Mandalay Highway between Phyu and Kyauktaga townships, to prevent the regime from reinforcing its troops at the clash sites.
Regime forces guarding bridge killed in Bago
At least eight regime forces were killed and two injured in Yedashe Township, Bago Region on Monday when Red Scarf Column conducted a surprise raid on a regime base at the bridge over the Sittaung River in Kywe Yine Pyin Village, according to the resistance group.
During the clash, the Northern Thantaung Special Forces group shelled the junta base with improvised mortar rounds.
There were no resistance casualties in the raid, the resistance group said.
