Myanmar resistance set to expand fighting in Mandalay after seizing strategic junta outpost

A joint offensive by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Mandalay People’s Defense Force seized a strategic junta military outpost in Shan State’s Nawnghkio Township after a fierce overnight battle that ended early Wednesday morning, resistance groups said, The Irrawaddy reports.

Nawnghkio is about an hour’s drive from the regime’s Defence Services Academy in Mandalay Region’s Pyin Oo Lwin Township. The strategic outpost usually had more than 200 junta troops stationed at it, reports The Irrawaddy.

The Mandalay PDF under the National Unity Government’s Ministry of Defense and the TNLA launched their attack on the outpost in Nawnghkio Township’s Thanbo Village on Jan. 2.

They seized the outpost at about 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 3, following what they described as a fierce overnight battle.

Drone jammers and a cache of arms and ammunition were seized by resistance troops, a member of the PDF said.

“We are still verifying the casualties on both sides. However, they [junta] had dozens of casualties as we ambushed three military trucks on the way [to the outpost]. They were [carrying] reinforcements from Kyaukme [township],” he said.

The PDF said it arrested Lt-Colonel Thet Aung who it described as a commander of a junta military column in the area. The Lt-Colonel was a lecturer in mechanics at the Defense Service Technological Academy, not a combat veteran, the PDF said.

A conflict analyst closely monitoring the fighting in northern Shan State said that the fact that a lecturer was commanding an outpost “revealed that [junta boss] Min Aung Hlaing’s military no longer has a sufficient number of combat veterans … not only in the lower ranks but also higher ranked personnel.”

With the seizure of the outpost, the resistance is now able to threaten all of Nawnghkio Township, the analyst said.  It can also attack Pyin Oo Lwin, a core command center of the junta’s military, in a short time and expand its operations to the lower parts of Mandalay Region, he said.

In a statement, the PDF described the seizure of the outpost as a “New Year’s gift,” saying it was now in a good position to expand its operations in Mandalay Region.

The TNLA and the PDF launched two offensives last year: Operation Kanaung in July and Operation Taungthaman in late October. They continue clashing with the junta’s infantry battalions 252 and 257 and its Light Infantry Battalion 502 in and around Nawnghkio Township as part of the two operations.