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By Ko Oo 10 November 2022
In Kachin State in northern Myanmar, the navy regime is dealing with an growing menace from its outdated enemy, the Kachin Independence Military (KIA).
The KIA strenuously objected when the Myanmar navy seized energy in a coup final 12 months. When the navy carried out brutal crackdowns on peaceable anti-coup protests, the armed group warned that it might reply if unarmed protesters have been shot in Kachin.
The ethnic armed group did because it mentioned, and began by seizing the regime’s Alaw Bum hill-top base in March final 12 months, which earned the KIA public help and a spotlight.
The regime has suffered heavy casualties trying to retake the bottom, however all to no avail to this point.
The KIA has additionally supplied shelter for putting authorities workers who evaded arrest by the junta, in addition to political dissidents. It additionally took an energetic half in forming the parallel Nationwide Unity Authorities.
Extra importantly, the armed group supplied shelter, navy coaching and arms for younger folks from totally different elements of the nation who determined to take up arms in opposition to the regime after it brutally slaughtered their kinfolk and pals.
The KIA’s help pressured the tempo on the event of the armed resistance motion in Sagaing, Magwe and Mandalay areas in addition to Chin State in northwest Myanmar.
Within the early days of the armed resistance, the regime boasted that it might crush the resistance in Sagaing inside six months. However the reverse is occurring, due to the bravery and sacrifices of native folks, and the KIA has additionally performed a component.
This has earned the KIA public help not solely from locals in northern Myanmar however from folks in Mandalay, Magwe and Sagaing areas in central Myanmar, which in flip bolsters its political picture.
Throughout a ceasefire with the Myanmar navy that spanned 17 years from 1994 to 2011, the armed group grew financially and militarily, establishing a parallel administration which consists of colleges, courts and public service departments.
The KIA is made up of 10 brigades—three of which (4, 6 and 10) are energetic in northern Shan State. In Kachin it has seven brigades, two infantry divisions and an artillery division. In whole these comprise 24 native battalions, 27 cellular battalions, 5 artillery battalions and three particular battalions. The KIA reportedly has greater than 600 officers.
Kachin State is the third-largest area in Myanmar, and is a largely forested space with quite a few rivers and creeks.
The Northern Command of the Myanmar navy oversees Kachin State, and is headquartered in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin. An air pressure base is positioned in Myitkyina with a squadron of helicopters, and the bottom can be used to refuel fighter jets and bombers.
Myitkyina can be dwelling to artillery and drone models, fight help models, a navy coaching middle and a navy hospital. Numerous junta armored automobiles have lately arrived in Myitkyina, and cantonments are so overcrowded that tanks should be housed within the district-level fireplace workplace.
The KIA is headquartered in Laiza on the China-Myanmar border east of Myitkyina. Laiza can be dwelling to different civil service workplaces and navy models together with an artillery division, navy hospital, and officer coaching college. There may be reportedly additionally an ordnance manufacturing unit close to the KIA headquarters.
In the meantime, the regime has native ethnic militia teams below its management in Kachin, together with Pangwa militias led by infamous warlord Zakhung Ting Ying in Pangwa; Lisu militias in Waingmaw; and Shanni militias alongside the Tanai-Hpakant highway.
The Myanmar navy has a complete of 75 infantry battalions plus a lot of artillery battalions and fight help models throughout Kachin State. In addition to them, it additionally has militia teams talked about above and three Border Guard Power (BGF) battalions.
Junta battalions are effectively positioned to take management of main cities and routes in Kachin State. It has additionally constructed bases in Hpakant, Myanmar’s jade-mining hub.
The KIA however controls rural elements and is exploiting the forested and mountainous terrain of Kachin to poses threats to the regime.
The armed group controls many jade, amber and gold mines in Kachin, a significant supply of earnings for it. General, the KIA is energetic throughout Kachin and poses threats to junta troops throughout the state.
To date, the assault on the Alaw Bum base has been the one navy operation immediately commanded by the KIA headquarters. Different operations over the previous 20 months have been carried out by brigades in their very own territories.
Steady clashes have been reported in Putao, Sumprabum, Tanai, Hpakant, Waingmaw, Bhamo and alongside the Irrawaddy River between Myitkyina and Katha.
There have been no large-scale assaults on the regime because the seizure of Alaw Bum base. However on the identical time, the regime can’t conduct large-scale assaults on the KIA both.
The regime is overstretched, because it has been preventing on a number of fronts throughout the nation because the coup. So, it dares not mobilize its battalions from one space to conduct maneuvers in one other, as a result of doing so dangers shedding floor within the first.
As such, the regime has been pressured to kind new models out of fight help models and forces from the rear to fill gaps. Beneath such circumstances, it’s fairly unlikely that the regime would use three or 4 divisions and its Army Operations Command to launch a large-scale assault in a specific space.
Battalions below the Northern Command did ship troops to conduct some navy operations in Hpakant, Tanai, Putao and within the east of Waingmaw. However the assaults have been neither large-scale nor lengthy.
The regime attacked the KIA’s Lung Ja Bum base within the east of Momauk across the finish of October. This was a medium-scale operation. Once more, it was not performed by battalions below the Northern Command alone.
Two tactical instructions below the seventh Army Operations Command primarily based in Shan State’s Pekon have been used to strengthen junta bases within the space earlier than the deliberate assault. Some 600 troops from six battalions of the Northern Command have been then dispatched on the fight mission, assisted by air and artillery help.
The regime mentioned it managed to grab the KIA base within the assault, however the KIA dismissed the declare. It’s truthful to say the KIA and the Kachin Individuals’s Protection Power (KPDF), which operates below the KIA’s command, are sufficiently well-prepared and well-equipped to repulse small- and medium-scale regime assaults.
The heaviest losses sustained by the KIA because the coup have been on account of junta bombings on ANang Pa in Hpakant. The commander of the KIA’s Brigade 9 died within the air raid. Earlier, KIA Brigade 8 deputy commander was arrested. However such assaults by the regime are nonetheless removed from inflicting devastating injury to the KIA.
There have been studies that the regime is planning to conduct an aerial assault on the KIA’s headquarters in Laiza. However such studies should not new.
The KIA has grown in quantity as a result of KPDF forces, which have a powerful presence alongside the Mogaung-Hopin-Mohnyin-Namar highway and railroad.
Reviews from the bottom say junta troops dare not transcend Nan Yin Creek within the east of Mohnyin and Hopin, with the KIA apparently taking management of a spot domestically often known as Kauk Kwe Kwin between Myitkyina-Yangon railroad and the Irrawaddy River.
Over the previous 20 months because the Alaw Bum preventing, the KIA has additionally fought in neighboring Sagaing, other than coaching PDFs. There have been large-scale assaults in Pinlebu and Banmauk. Twenty months is sufficient to practice and arm the KPDFs in Kachin.
So, we are able to count on to see main assaults in Kachin quickly.
Ko Oo is an ethnic affairs analyst.
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