Burma coup resistance notes March 2, 2024
Arakan Army captures a junta training school & wipes out reinforcements; fighter jet crashes; jet fuel tanker blown up; Karen forces route the junta in Tavoy Township; more hospitals bombed.
Arakan-------------------
On Feb. 24 the junta sent its Battalions 36 and 373 – only 120 soldiers, far below normal strength even for 1 battalion – by helicopter to prevent the fall of Yanbwe, but the Arakan Army attacked and killed at least 80 of them over the next 3 days including a lieutenant colonel, despite constant airstrikes. Their weapons were also captured along with a lot of ammunition. Supplies dropped by helicopter were intercepted by the AA. (Myanmar Now 2/26, Khit Thit Media 2/27)
Battalion 36 was based in Irrawaddy Region, and was almost completely annihilated by the AA counter-attack. Because the bodies were not recovered by the junta, it is evicting the widows and families of the dead soldiers from army housing. It calls the soldiers “missing”, as if they had deserted or surrendered, so they don’t get death benefits and their families lose their housing. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/28)
Two junta generals got into a fist fight over blame for the disaster at Yanbwe. The brawl resulted in a broken tooth and a fractured nose. (Khit Thit Media 2/27)
The AA attacked the junta’s training center in Minbya for 10 days and finally took it completely on Feb. 27. (Mizzima 2/28)
At the same time, the AA has nearly completed the takeover of Ponnajun town, only 30 km from the capital Sittwe. The junta sent two armored vehicles to Ponnajun on Feb. 28, but the AA destroyed both of them. (Myanmar Now 3/1) Twenty-three junta police from the Punnajon city police barracks defected to the Arakan Army on Feb. 22, including the police chief. (Khit Thit Media 2/27)
The junta army appears helpless to stop the advance of the AA, losing battle after battle. Personnel depletion and low morale are likely causes.
The junta has been kidnapping hundreds of Arakan young people both in Yangon and while traveling to Arakan State from Yangon by bus and airplane. The junta thinks they’re all going back to help liberate their homeland, now that the AA is advancing rapidly there. Most of the victims have not been politically active. (Khit Thit Media 2/25)
The AA has banned young men 18-35 from leaving Paletwa Township as it recruits new soldiers. This travel ban mirrors the one imposed by the illegal Naypyitaw junta. (Zalen News 2/28)
Kawthoolei-------------------
After the Karen army and allied PDFs savaged a junta supply convoy and killed over 30 troops along the Tavoy-Htee Khee road on Feb. 21, they headed toward the towns of Myitta and Hindah on Feb. 23, where the junta had camps. Before they got there, however, the junta troops had fled the Myitta police barracks, the Hindah camp, and a bridge outpost and took shelter in a hilltop camp near Myitta. The Karen burned the police barracks and the Hindah camp, then attacked the hilltop camp. (Tanintharyi Times 2/24) Only 3 of the 17 convoy vehicles reached Kyaukmetaung camp which they were trying to supply. (Than Lwin Khet News 2/25)
Junta troops fled another camp in Mutraw District on Feb. 25 after the Karen army and allied PDF rained drone bombs and sniper fire on it for 9 consecutive days. The camp was at Maw Pu (Tha Kei Doh) in Luthaw Township, 15 km NW of Dae Bu Noh, and Karen soldiers captured dozens of mortar rounds left behind by the fleeing troops. (Khit Thit Media 2/26) The junta abandoned 2 other camps in Mutraw District in mid-February.
The Karen army and allied PDFs fought junta troops for 2 days Feb. 28-29 at Naung Kone near Natthankwin in Kler Lwi Htoo District, where another extended battle took place earlier in February. Over 20 junta troops were killed in this latest battle, including the battalion commander. (Mizzima 3/1)
The Karen Border Guard Force, formerly a junta lackey militia, has rebranded itself as the “Karen National Army” (KNA) after separating from the junta during January. (Than Lwin Khet News 2/24) The problem with that name is that there is already a Karen national army, which consists of 2 branches, the Karen National Liberation Army and Karen National Defense Organization, both commanded by the Kawthoolei government (KNU). The BGF/”KNA” has not changed sides to fight alongside the Karen army; rather, its primary purpose is to safeguard its lucrative revenue sources in the international organized crime enclaves along the Kawthoolei-Thailand border. Eventually that will again bring it into conflict with the KNU and the real Karen national army.
The BGF has been forcibly recruiting people for its militia in Lu Pleh (Hlaingbwe) in central Kawthoolei, an area that it still controls. (People's Spring 2/25) Also, the BGF expelled 997 foreigners, mostly Chinese nationals, from its KK Park organized crime hub south of Myawaddy on Feb. 29 in response to Chinese pressure, handing them over to Thai police in neighboring Mae Sot city. The Thais then handed them on to Chinese police. (Karen Information Center 3/1)
Pa-O-----------------
The Pa-O ethnic army (PNLA) seized a junta camp in eastern Hopone Township on Feb. 23. (People's Spring 2/24)
Two days later on Feb. 25 the PNLA fought off a junta attack in Hopone Township, killing 16 soldiers including 5 officers (2 majors and 3 captains). The Pa-O forces then took possession of their weapons. (Khit Thit Media 2/26)
Kachin-----------------
The Kachin army stormed a police barracks after a 3-day siege, at Tamakan in Hpakant Township, on Feb. 26. They went on to attack a battalion base there, finally overcoming it on March 1. That base had been firing mortars into surrounding communities. (Khit Thit Media 3/1) As 4 jets were carrying out reprisal bombing on Feb. 27, Kachin forces shot and damaged one of them; it flew away trailing smoke. (Khit Thit Media 2/27) The Kachin are now assaulting one of the last remaining junta battalions in Mansi Township, south of Bhamo city.
Chin-----------------
After Chin forces and local PDFs drove junta troops out of villages on the south side of Kalay Township of Sagaing Region last week, they continued on the north side this week and in adjacent Titain Township of Chin State. Fifteen troops were killed including an officer, and 10 more were wounded; 10 Chin soldiers including an officer also died. Jets bombed civilian communities. (Myanmar Now 2/26)
Those Revolution forces invaded Kalay University, where the junta has a garrison, on Feb. 26, and rescued 130 civilian students and staff who were being held as hostages or human shields. The university campus is on the Chin State border.
Inter-ethnic strife-----------------
A Chin splinter militia, the Mara Defense Force, teamed up with the Arakan Army to attack the Chin National Army and the Joint Chin Defense Force in Paletwa Township on Feb. 24, resulting in 4 dead and 3 wounded on the CNA/JCDF side, while 3 AA and at least 7 MDF soldiers were also killed. Paletwa Township is in Chin State, but much of it is controlled by the Arakan Army. Tension between the Chin and Arakan for control of Paletwa has been largely suppressed in order to focus of defeating the Naypyitaw junta, but the AA trained and armed the Mara faction, which is opposed to the larger Chin independence movement. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/27)
People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)-----------------
PDFs in Tamu Township north of Kalay attacked and overran a joint camp of the junta and its ethnic Shanni lackey militia, the SNA, on Feb. 28, capturing weapons. (People's Spring 2/28)
Junta troops abandoned a camp in Myaing Township of Magway Region, where they were posted to guard a junta-owned oil field. PDFs had attacked repeatedly with drones and gunfire, and on Feb. 29 the troops left, after which the PDFs cleared and destroyed the camp. (People's Spring 3/1)
A PDF in Monywa Township of Sagaing Region successfully used a drone to destroy a drone jammer at a junta police barracks and Pyu Saw Htee terrorist camp. On Feb. 24 it flew a fixed-wing drone over the known site of a drone jammer and dropped a bomb that set fire to the installation. (Khit Thit Media 2/26) Disabling the jammer would leave the camp vulnerable to more drone attacks.
Urban warfare------------------
An Urban Tiger group set off an enormous explosion that damaged an aviation fuel tanker ship in Yangon harbor the night of Feb. 29. Two junta crew members were killed. The blast could be heard in many townships, and was followed by a fire aboard the ship. (Than Lwin Khet News 3/1)
Bombs struck a court, a police interrogation/torture center, an administrative office, a junta-owned Mytel cell phone office, and other junta targets this week in Yangon several nights this week. Blasts occurred in Mayangone, Insein, Yankin, South Okalappa, Shwepyitha, and Hlaingthaya Townships. (Khit Thit Media 2/28, 3/2)
Junta decline------------------
A Mig-29 fighter jet fell down and was completely destroyed in Salin Township of Magway Region on Feb. 29. The likely cause was mechanical failure, as it had not been shot at. The pilot ejected to safety. (Myanmar Now 2/29)
Fear of kidnapping of young people by junta troops at road checkpoints has caused a run on air tickets between Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State, and Yangon. Flights are sold out through late March (Kachin News Group 3/1) . Kidnapping of young adults is epidemic since the Feb. 10 announcement of military conscription by the junta.
Terrorism--------------------
Junta jets deliberately bombed and destroyed a civilian hospital in Arakan-controlled Minbya town on Feb. 27. This hospital was treating wounded Burmese prisoners of war and their civilian family members, who suffered casualties in the bombing. Another airstrike hit a school in Minbya, injuring at least 25 civilians including children, most of them seriously. (People's Spring 2/27) Again, targeting hospitals and schools is a war crime, and is also a tradition of the illegal Naypyitaw regime.
The junta navy fired a mortar round into a crowded urban market in Sittwe, the Arakan capital, on Feb. 29, causing an explosion that killed 12 civilians and injured at least 80 others. Women and children were among the victims. Junta propaganda blamed the AA. (Western News 2/29)
Also in Arakan State, 3 junta army and police officers have gone on camera to record confessions to issuing and carrying out an order to murder 7 captive civilians in Myauk Oo on Jan. 23, including a journalist. The murderers are now prisoners of war held by the Arakan Army, which controls Myauk Oo. (Western News 2/29
The junta has been compiling lists of Arakan- and Chin-owned businesses and employers in the Yangon Region. The reason isn’t publicized, but the junta has been kidnapping ethnic Arakan people on suspicion of supporting the Arakan Army’s successful campaign to drive junta forces out of much of Arakan State. Chin State is about 80% liberated as well. (Khit Thit Media 2/28)
After PDFs destroyed the police barracks in Kantuma village of Tantse Township, Sagaing Region, junta troops burned that village and 4 others.
Political and economic-------------------
More details have emerged regarding the plot uncovered last week by American authorities for a Japanese mafia boss to sell weapons-grade plutonium from Burma to Iran in exchange for battlefield weapons. The ethnic armed group allegedly supplying the nuclear material was the southern Shan RCSS, known for drug trafficking and functioning more as a cartel than a rebel group, loosely allied to the illegal Naypyitaw regime. Specifically, the supplier is allegedly RCSS General Yawd Serk. The weapons to be imported were allegedly for the RCSS and also the Karen army, although no Karen person was named. (Subir Bhaumik in the Eurasia Review 2/25)
The Thailand military regime’s defense minister Sutin Klungsang said on Feb. 25 that he will closely monitor the activities of Thailand-based groups opposed to the illegal Naypyitaw regime. (Ayeyarwaddy Times 2/25) Over 4 million Burma workers work legally in Thailand, and there are at least 90,000 acknowledged refugees and an unknown but large number of irregular refugees and workers. These expatriates have been a key source of fundraising and logistical support for the Spring Revolution that seeks to overturn the terrorist coup plotters in Naypyitaw, whom Thai regime has consistently supported.
Indian officials met with those of the Arakan Army on Feb. 29 to discuss India’s transport corridor project connecting India’s Mizoram State with the Sittwe seaport in Arakan State via Paletwa. The AA now controls most of that route, and may soon capture Sittwe itself. (Western News 3/1) From the start of the current civil war India has backed the wrong side, providing the illegal Naypyitaw regime with weapons and diplomatic support, ignoring the possibility that the junta would lose control of where India wants to build its transport corridor. Now it is belatedly having to forge relations with the Arakan authorities who have gained control of that area.
-စီၤ ထံဆၢ