[Tee tiong huat]

KIA Launches Offensive to Drive Myanmar Military From Southern Tip of Kachin State. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and its allies on resumed attacking three junta battalions that serve as a buffer to a military command center in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State, ethnic army’s spokesman Colonel Naw Bu said.

“We restarted the offensive using heavy artillery in Mansi and Momauk [townships] this morning,” Colonel Naw Bu told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. “We are exchanging shelling with junta troops in Bhamo [township].” Mansi & Momauk are located to t)south & east of Bhamo, respectively. Junta’s 21st Military Ops Command center is based in Bhamo town, near southern tip of Kachin State.

KIA & allied People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) are attacking 3 light infantry battalions in Mansi & Momauk. The 3 battalions provide a buffer to the 21st Military Ops Command ctr in Bhamo town.

The KIA and allied PDFs attacked Momauk and Mansi towns on May 7, seizing police stations and junta outposts, but were unable to capture battalion headquarters. Control of Kachin State’s southernmost townships is critical for the KIA’s effort to protect its headquarters, control roads to China and prevent the junta from reinforcing or supplying its bases elsewhere in the state. Since launching an offensive on junta targets along the road linking the state capital Myitkina and Bhamo town in March, the KIA and its allies have pushed junta troops into Bhamo, in an effort to isolate them there.

https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/war-again...state.html