Town as Anti-Junta Offensive Widens
(Reuters) - Opposition troops have captured a town in central Myanmar that is a district administrative headquarters after beating back the military, the shadow government and local media said on Tuesday.
The shadow National Unity Government (NUG) hailed it as a key victory, although an analyst cautioned that the fighters may struggle to hold Kawlin, which has a population of around 25,000.
Myanmar's military is battling a surge in violence as forces opposed to it, including ethnic minority armies, have launched fresh attacks over two years after the generals unseated an democratically elected government in a 2021 coup.
Opposition troops attacked junta soldiers in Kawlin last week, before overpowering them on Monday and taking over the town, the NUG said.
Its defence ministry posted a video on social media of soldiers raising the flag of resistance groups aligned with the shadow government.
"A district level town is under our control now," NUG prime minister Mahn Winn Khaing Thann said on social media platform X. "What a groundbreaking victory!"
A junta spokesman did not respond to calls from Reuters.
The town fell after a small group of junta soldiers surrendered following fierce fighting, local media outlet Myanmar Now said, quoting a rebel fighter.
However, Richard Horsey, senior adviser for Myanmar at the non-profit International Crisis Group, said the resistance might find it difficult to maintain control over Kawlin.
"It's not that difficult to surge in and overrun a provincial town close to the mountains. But it will be difficult to hold it," he told Reuters.
A 28-year-old Kawlin resident, who declined to be named because of security concerns, said they left the town over the weekend after fierce fighting erupted between the rebels and junta soldiers backed by air support.
"Our neighbour's house was hit. There was no way to stay there safely," the resident said. "So almost everyone has left."
Resistance troops have taken over Kawlin's police station, district administrative office, bank and other key establishments, the NUG said.
The NUG, comprised of remnants of the administration of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, has been engaging with democratic nations, including the United States, to rally support for its fight against the powerful military.
In a separate offensive, NUG said its troops and those of its allies had taken over another town in Sagaing division, where Kawlin is also located, in a district bordering India.
Besides the NUG, an alliance of ethnic minority armies late last month launched a series of surprise coordinated attacks on junta targets along areas abutting China.
Rights groups and U.N. experts have accused the military of committing atrocities against civilians in its efforts to crush the resistance. The junta says it is fighting "terrorists" and has ignored international calls to cease hostilities.
(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Alison Williams)
Junta-led Myanmar holds joint naval exercise with top arms supplier Russia
The military-run Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar is holding its first joint naval exercise with Russia, state media reported Tuesday, with the countries carrying out maneuvers in the Andaman Sea.
AFP
Issued on: 08/11/2023 - 
Reports in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that the maritime security exercise with Russia was being held until Thursday, 157 kilometers (85 miles) west of Myeik in Myanmar’s far south. Some Russian navy vessels sailed from Yangon to take part, state television MRTV reported.
The three-day joint drill involves aircraft and naval vessels and focuses on defending against threats from air, sea and land as well as other maritime security measures, the reports said.
Russia is a major supporter and arms supplier of Myanmar’s military government, which was installed after the army seized power and ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Russia defends Myanmar’s military government in international forums, and the ruling generals return the favor by generally supporting Moscow’s foreign policy agenda.
Myanmar has been treated as a pariah state by many Western nations since the military takeover and the violent suppression of protests against it, which has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and given rise to an armed resistance movement in many parts of the country.
The Global New Light of Myanmar said the head of the military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, met on Monday with Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s navy, at Thilawa port in the southern part of Yangon. The Russian officer welcomed an inspection by the Myanmar leader, who reviewed a guard of honor and toured one of the Russian vessels.
Min Aung Hlaing was briefed on the capacity of Russian weapons, the installation of modern systems and an anti-submarine helicopter, the reports said.
Tom Andrews, the UN independent investigator on human rights in Myanmar, in a report in May to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council identified $406 million in weapons and materiel that went to the Myanmar military from Russia, $267 million from China, $254 million from Singapore, $51 million from India and $28 million from Thailand.
Since the 2021 takeover, the report said, 28 Russian private and state-owned companies have transferred fighter jets and their spare parts, advanced missile systems, reconnaissance and attack drones, attack helicopters and other systems to Myanmar's military.
As an example of what he called the military’s brutality, Andrews pointed to its April 11 air strike using a Russian Yak-130 fighter jet on a ceremony in northern Myanmar attended by some 300 opponents of army rule. It was quickly followed by an attack by Russian Mi-35 helicopters on those who came to help. He said at least 160 people were killed, including many children.
The joint exercises come at a time when Myanmar’s military is facing the coordinated offensives of the pro-democracy resistance fighters and ethnic minority armed organizations that have seized strategic towns in the northern region of Sagaing and Shan state in the east.
Russian-made fighter jets are used in attacks on both the resistance fighters and ethnic armed groups.
(AP)
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