DRONES EVEN THE ODDS
With drones and dawn assault, Myanmar's Chin rebels open new front
CHANCHINMAWIA
November 17, 2023
ZOKHAWTHAR, India (Reuters) - In the pre-dawn darkness on Monday, a 22-year-old Myanmar rebel fighter approached a hill-top military camp in remote Chin State with dozens of comrades for an assault that opened up another front in a mounting nationwide offensive against the junta.
"We cut the fencing wire," said Suan, who gave only his first name. "I was the first to enter. As soon as I entered, they started firing at us."
The battle at Khawmawi military camp, near Myanmar's porous border with India's Mizoram state, lasted almost 12 hours, according to Suan and five other rebel fighters and commanders.
Another military camp at Rihkhawdar was overrun by rebels within a few hours, marking a key victory for a grassroots insurgency that has brewed in Chin State since a 2021 coup when Myanmar's generals deposed a democratically elected government.
The ethnic Chin fighters said they used drones to drop bombs on the military bases, and junta soldiers fought back - especially fiercely at Khawmawi - occasionally firing mortars.
"When we entered the camp, most soldiers had already fled. But the ones that stayed, around 20 soldiers, fought intensely," said Lawma, 26, who like Suan, lay at a hospital in India's Champhai town after being wounded in the fighting.
At least nine Chin fighters were killed in the assault, along with six junta soldiers, two Chin rebels said, asking not to be named.
Suan and Lawma's account of the battle, which was corroborated by a rebel commander and six residents who witnessed some of the fighting, provides a rare ground-level insight into a widening assault against Myanmar's military junta.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
In late October, three ethnic minority insurgent groups launched what they call "Operation 1027", from the date their offensive began, to take on junta troops in Shan State near Myanmar's border with China, winning control of several towns and more than 100 military outputs.
The Arakan Army, part of Three Brotherhood Alliance that launched the offensive, also opened a front against the military in western Rakhine State.
Insurgents are also beating back the military in Kayah State, which borders Thailand.
The offensive is the most serious challenge to the junta since the 2021 coup.
Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesperson, said late on Wednesday the military was facing "heavy assaults" on multiple fronts. The junta describes the rebels as "terrorists".
HOMEMADE GUNS TO DRONES
Lalchaka, a resident of the Indian border town of Zokhawthar, near the overrun military camps, said he initially heard gunshots on Sunday evening but the firing intensified after rebels deployed drones to drop bombs at night.
At the beginning of their insurgency, Chin fighters, including university students who took up arms, struggled to find weapons, often using homemade guns to take on the military.
"At that time, from a military perspective, we were young," said Sui Khar, vice chairman of the Chin National Front, which participated in Monday's assault that had been planned weeks in advance after reconnaissance.
Across Myanmar, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said insurgents had been using drones to drop hundreds of bombs on military positions.
One Chin fighter said their drones, which could carry up to 6 kg (13 pounds), were smuggled in from abroad, adding: "We use drones in most of our operations".
After the two military camps were overrun, 43 junta soldiers crossed over to India seeking shelter and most were subsequently flown back to Myanmar.
On Wednesday, two days after the battle, Indian paramilitary soldiers manned one side of the Zokhawthar border crossing.
On the other side stood armed Chin rebels, under a billowing Chin flag.
(Additional reporting by Krishn Kaushik; writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; editing by Robert Birsel)
With drones and dawn assault, Myanmar's Chin rebels open new front
CHANCHINMAWIA
November 17, 2023
ZOKHAWTHAR, India (Reuters) - In the pre-dawn darkness on Monday, a 22-year-old Myanmar rebel fighter approached a hill-top military camp in remote Chin State with dozens of comrades for an assault that opened up another front in a mounting nationwide offensive against the junta.
"We cut the fencing wire," said Suan, who gave only his first name. "I was the first to enter. As soon as I entered, they started firing at us."
The battle at Khawmawi military camp, near Myanmar's porous border with India's Mizoram state, lasted almost 12 hours, according to Suan and five other rebel fighters and commanders.
Another military camp at Rihkhawdar was overrun by rebels within a few hours, marking a key victory for a grassroots insurgency that has brewed in Chin State since a 2021 coup when Myanmar's generals deposed a democratically elected government.
The ethnic Chin fighters said they used drones to drop bombs on the military bases, and junta soldiers fought back - especially fiercely at Khawmawi - occasionally firing mortars.
"When we entered the camp, most soldiers had already fled. But the ones that stayed, around 20 soldiers, fought intensely," said Lawma, 26, who like Suan, lay at a hospital in India's Champhai town after being wounded in the fighting.
At least nine Chin fighters were killed in the assault, along with six junta soldiers, two Chin rebels said, asking not to be named.
Suan and Lawma's account of the battle, which was corroborated by a rebel commander and six residents who witnessed some of the fighting, provides a rare ground-level insight into a widening assault against Myanmar's military junta.
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
In late October, three ethnic minority insurgent groups launched what they call "Operation 1027", from the date their offensive began, to take on junta troops in Shan State near Myanmar's border with China, winning control of several towns and more than 100 military outputs.
The Arakan Army, part of Three Brotherhood Alliance that launched the offensive, also opened a front against the military in western Rakhine State.
Insurgents are also beating back the military in Kayah State, which borders Thailand.
The offensive is the most serious challenge to the junta since the 2021 coup.
Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesperson, said late on Wednesday the military was facing "heavy assaults" on multiple fronts. The junta describes the rebels as "terrorists".
HOMEMADE GUNS TO DRONES
Lalchaka, a resident of the Indian border town of Zokhawthar, near the overrun military camps, said he initially heard gunshots on Sunday evening but the firing intensified after rebels deployed drones to drop bombs at night.
At the beginning of their insurgency, Chin fighters, including university students who took up arms, struggled to find weapons, often using homemade guns to take on the military.
"At that time, from a military perspective, we were young," said Sui Khar, vice chairman of the Chin National Front, which participated in Monday's assault that had been planned weeks in advance after reconnaissance.
Across Myanmar, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said insurgents had been using drones to drop hundreds of bombs on military positions.
One Chin fighter said their drones, which could carry up to 6 kg (13 pounds), were smuggled in from abroad, adding: "We use drones in most of our operations".
After the two military camps were overrun, 43 junta soldiers crossed over to India seeking shelter and most were subsequently flown back to Myanmar.
On Wednesday, two days after the battle, Indian paramilitary soldiers manned one side of the Zokhawthar border crossing.
On the other side stood armed Chin rebels, under a billowing Chin flag.
(Additional reporting by Krishn Kaushik; writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; editing by Robert Birsel)
November 16, 2023
(Reuters) - Myanmar's military has launched attacks from the air and the sea to recapture a port town on the Bay of Bengal, an opposition alliance said on Friday, as junta forces face the fiercest offensive from their enemies in years.
The military, which seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup, is battling a coordinated offensive launched last month by an alliance of three ethnic minority insurgent groups, as well as allied pro-democracy fighters who have taken up arms since the coup.
"The military attacked Pauktaw town with helicopters and artillery fire from a navy ship after we conquered the police station of the town in the morning," the Three Brotherhood Alliance said on its Telegram channel, referring to the fighting in western Myanmar's Rakhine State on Thursday.
"In the evening, junta troops came into the town and shot and killed civilians," the alliance said.
Reuters could not independently verify the report and a junta spokesperson did not respond to request for comment.
Pauktaw is about 500 km (310 miles ) northwest of Myanmar's main city of Yangon.
The offensive, which the insurgent alliance calls "Operation 1027" after the date it was launched, is the biggest the junta has faced in years.
Three rebel groups, aligned with pro-democracy fighters and a parallel, pro-democracy civilian government, have captured several towns and military posts across the country.
The Irrawaddy news portal, citing a resident of Pauktaw, said members of the Arakan Army (AA) guerrilla group had earlier taken control of the town.
"All the residents are running away. There is no one in the city, all the shops are closed," the resident said.
Fighting has also broken out in Shan State on the border with China where the insurgents have pledged to wrest control of the area from the junta and eradicate online scam centres run illegally there.
In the weeks before the clashes, Chinese officials called on the junta to take stronger action against the scam centres where Chinese and other foreign nationals have been known to be trapped as victims of human trafficking.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to work in scam centres across Southeast Asia in recent years, including at least 120,000 in Myanmar, robbing strangers of their savings online in a fast-growing new kind of crime, the United Nations says.
Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun accused the rebel alliance of trying to get China's support for their cause.
"China is really keen to eliminate online scam activities, and (the alliance) is using that situation with a strategy to gain benefits for their organisation," he said in a statement on Thursday.
Junta state media said on Friday it had handed three Chinese nationals accused of running scams over to China, while a fourth suspect shot himself after being captured.
The Chinese government could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dozens of junta troops have surrendered in the fighting, according to rebel forces and a video verified by Reuters, and more have fled into neighbouring India.
The junta says it is battling terrorists and has ordered all government staff and those with military experience to prepare to serve in case of emergency.
(Reporting by Reuters staff; writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; editing by Robert Birsel)
No comments:
Post a Comment