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Battle of Lashio

Coordinates: 22°57′59″N 97°45′09″E / 22.9665°N 97.7525°E / 22.9665; 97.7525
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Battle of Lashio
Part of Operation 1027 in the Myanmar civil war

  Controlled by the Three Brotherhood Alliance
  Controlled by the UWSA
Date2 July 2024 – 3 August 2024 (1 month, 1 day)
Location22°57′59″N 97°45′09″E / 22.9665°N 97.7525°E / 22.9665; 97.7525
Result Rebel victory[2]
Territorial
changes
Rebel forces captured Lashio city and surrounding areas[2]
Belligerents
State Administration Council

Three Brotherhood Alliance
People's Liberation Army
Bamar People's Liberation Army[1]


United Wa State Army (non-combatant)
Commanders and leaders
  • Brig. Gen. Thant Htin Soe (POW)
  • Brig. Gen. Tin Tun Aung [3]
  • Col. Hla Min [3]
  • Maj. Gen. Soe Tint (POW)[4]
  • Brig. Gen. Myo Min Htwe (POW)[4]
Units involved

 Tatmadaw

Three Brotherhood Alliance:

People's Liberation Army
Bamar People's Liberation Army
Strength
5,000[6] 6,000+[6]
Casualties and losses
2,000 killed
4,783 surrendered (including 2,000 soldiers)[6][4]
500+ killed, 1,000+ wounded (per the MNDAA)[7]
300 civilians killed[8]

The Battle of Lashio was an offensive conducted by the Three Brotherhood Alliance, along with other resistance forces, to capture the northern Shan city of Lashio. The headquarters for the Tatmadaw's Northeastern Command, the city was besieged by rebel forces following the collapse of the Chinese-mediated ceasefire that had paused the rebels' Operation 1027.[9][10][11][12][13]

Background

[edit]

During the first phase of Operation 1027, resistance forces seized several towns surrounding Laisho, including Hsenwi, Namtu, and Kutkai. They also took control of the road between Laisho and Mandalay, cutting the city off from reinforcement except by air. Following the city's encirclement, junta forces destroyed several bridges leading into the city to try and prevent rebel forces from advancing further. While the city appeared to be a key target for the resistance following the fall of Laukkai, the conflict in Northern Shan was halted by a ceasefire mediated by China.[9][14]

The ceasefire agreement collapsed in late June 2024, after the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a Brotherhood Alliance member, launched attacks in response to alleged junta violations of the ceasefire.[15] The rebel forces took control of the towns of Kyaukme and Nawnghkio on the road from Lashio to Mandalay, further consolidating the rebels' encirclement.[16][17] On 2 July, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), another member of the alliance, joined the offensive, attacking junta positions around Lashio with the TNLA.[18] The military responded to the attacks with airstrikes and indiscriminate shelling. As fighting moved closer to the city proper, families of soldiers were evacuated, and thousands of civilians fled the conflict zone.[19]

Battle

[edit]

Resistance forces began to advance into the city on 6 July, shelling and using drones to bomb the junta's headquarters inside of the city.[20] On 14 July, the MNDAA announced a four-day halt in its operations to avoid interfering with the ongoing third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.[21] However, clashes continued despite the unilateral ceasefire. On 17 July anti-junta forces captured army checkpoints outside of Lashio, forcing soldiers to withdraw into the city.[22] The MNDAA captured No. (68) Infantry Regiment on 23 July, capturing 317 POWs, including a Lieutenant Colonel, 2 Majors, and 5 Captains in the northern part of Lashio.[23][24]

On 25 July 2024, the MNDAA claimed to have taken control of the junta's Northeastern Regional Military Command headquarters inside the city, but this claim was denied by the junta.[25] Rebel forces reported that resistance forces only had to capture a few remaining military holdouts in the city.[1] On 26 July it was reported that the junta had ordered its remaining officials to leave Lashio as MNDAA troops swept through remaining pockets of resistance.[26] Clashes were reportedly ongoing in the morning at Lashio Motel, Lashio University, and around Mansu Pagoda.[27] On the same day MNDAA rebels captured Ava Bank branch and Lashio Hospital.[28] On 27 July clashes were still ongoing with 20% of Lashio's civilian populace still trapped in the city. Routes were opened for civilians to flee.[29]

On that day the MNDAA captured the 41st Battalion Base, the 912nd Engineering Battalion Base, and a toll gate.[30] On 28 July MNDAA troops freed 200 political prisoners, including Tun Tun Hein, after capturing Lashio prison.[31] On 30 July the MNDAA ambushed a junta convoy from Tangyan that was meant to resupply Lashio, reportedly killing more than 50 soldiers.[32] On the same day the MNDAA captured Lashio Airport. On 1 August rebel forces raided the North East Command Post, leading to heavy clashes and casualties on both sides. Following the raid, only around 400 soldiers remained in the headquarters.[33] That evening, the Myanmar Air Force launched an airstrike on a hospital under the control of the MNDAA in Laukkai city, killing 10 people.[34]

On the same day, the MNDAA seized Supply & Logistics Battalion 626, capturing 2 BTR-3 infantry fighting vehicles.[35] On 2 August rebel forces stormed the Military Hospital in Lashio with unconfirmed reports of some patients and staff being killed.[36] According to some reports, the MNDAA attackers committed a massacre, murdering reportedly over 100 people, including children, medical staff, and patients who had remained in the hospital after the fighting subsided.[37][38] On 3 August MNDAA forces entered the Northeast Command headquarters and raised their flag there. The MNDAA destroyed 2 WMA-301 assault guns and 2 BTR-3 infantry fighting vehicles during the battle at the Northeastern Command Headquarter.[39] The same morning, the last junta holdouts inside Lashio were reportedly defeated.[40]

UWSA deployment

[edit]

On the night of 27 July hundreds of UWSA fighters entered Lashio to protect their external relations office and properties in the township. They communicated their intentions to both sides and reaffirmed their neutrality.[41] On 8 August UWSA reportedly deployed another batch of fighters armed with anti-aircraft guns to Lashio.[42]

Aftermath and importance

[edit]

Lashio was reported as being a major strategic target for resistance forces to capture, and its fall to the MNDAA dealt a major blow to the junta, severing contact between Naypyidaw and junta forces further north in the country. According to Nathan Ruser, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Lashio's capture "[...] basically eliminates the junta as an effective organized force from a huge part of the country,".[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Milestone as MNDAA Claims Capture of Myanmar Junta's NE Command in Lashio". The Irrawaddy. 25 July 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Regan, Watson, Helen, Angus (2 August 2024). "Myanmar rebels are claiming their biggest victory yet over junta forces. Could it be a turning point in the brutal civil war?". CNN.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b Myanmar Military Deputy Commander Killed After Retreating to Hilltop Base in Lashio, 30 July 2024
  4. ^ a b c Senior military officials surrender in Lashio; Backlash against Brotherhood Alliance over civilian deaths, 6 August 2024
  5. ^ "Brotherhood Alliance Seizes Another Ethnic Zone in Myanmar's northern Shan State". The Irrawaddy. December 23, 2023. Archived from the original on 23 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Myanmar’s Resistance Is Making Major Advances, 14 August 2024
  7. ^ https://www.163.com/dy/article/J8RJFPTH05567YBO.html
  8. ^ လားရှိုးမြို့ နှစ်ဘက်တိုက်ပွဲအတွင်း အရပ်သား (၃၀၀) ကျော်သေဆုံး, 22 August 2024
  9. ^ a b Junta attacks TNLA violating northern Shan peace agreement. June 12, 2024 Mizzima
  10. ^ Rifle Fire Audible in Lashio as Rebels Encircle Myanmar Junta Stronghold. The Irrawaddy. July 4, 2024
  11. ^ Civilians Flee as Noose Tightens on Myanmar Junta’s NE Command Headquarters. The Irrawaddy. July 5, 2024
  12. ^ Clashes break out near Myanmar military regional command. July 3, 2024. The Straits Times
  13. ^ Three Brotherhood Alliance Deploys Drones to Bombard Junta Regional Headquarters in Lashio. Burma News International. July 4, 2024
  14. ^ "Surrounded Myanmar Junta Troops Shell Civilians, Blow Bridges in Lashio". The Irrawaddy. 4 January 2024.
  15. ^ "Ceasefire between Brotherhood Alliance and Myanmar military ends in northern Shan State". Myanmar Now. 25 June 2024.
  16. ^ "TNLA Seizes Town and Myanmar Regime Positions in Northern Shan State". The Irrawaddy. 26 June 2024.
  17. ^ "Military shells, bombs Kyaukme as clashes continue in northern Shan State, Mandalay Region". Myanmar Now. 1 July 2024.
  18. ^ "Brotherhood Alliance Targets Junta Command in Lashio". The Irrawaddy. 4 July 2024.
  19. ^ "Civilians Flee as Noose Tightens on Myanmar Junta's NE Command Headquarters". The Irrawaddy. 5 July 2024.
  20. ^ "Myanmar Junta Troops Surrender Key Shan Base, Ethnic Armies Advance Into Lashio". The Irrawaddy. 6 July 2024.
  21. ^ "MNDAA Announces Four-Day Halt in Fighting in Myanmar's N. Shan". The Irrawaddy. 15 July 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  22. ^ Despite ‘ceasefire’, Brotherhood Alliance forces fight their way to northern Shan State capital, 17 July 2024
  23. ^ "လားရှိုးဝင်ပေါက် ခလရ ၆၈ ကို MNDAA သိမ်း".
  24. ^ လားရှိုး ခလရ ၆၈ ကို မြောက်ပိုင်းမဟာမိတ်တပ်များက အပြီးသတ် တိုက် ခိုက် သိမ်းပိုက်လိုက်ပြီး စစ်တပ်ဘက်မှ အလောင်းများနှင့် လက်နက်ခဲယမ်းများ သိမ်းဆည်းရရှိ, 23 July 2024
  25. ^ Kokang army says it has captured Myanmar junta’s Northeastern Regional Military Command HQ, 25 July 2024
  26. ^ Myanmar Junta Orders its Staff to Leave Lashio, 26 July 2024
  27. ^ Heavy fighting erupts in Lashio: clashes at motel, university, and around Mansu Pagoda, 26 July 2024
  28. ^ လားရှိုးလေယာဉ်ကွင်းနှင့် မြို့တစ်ဝက်နီးပါးကို MNDAA ကိုးကန့်တပ် ထိန်းချုပ်လိုက်ပြီ, 26 July 2024
  29. ^ Locals Report MNDAA Yet to Fully Capture Lashio, 27 July 2024
  30. ^ လားရှိုးမှာ စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်ရင်းနှစ်ခုနဲ့ တိုးဂိတ်ကို သိမ်းယူခဲ့ကြောင်း MNDAA ထုတ်ပြန်, 27 July 2024
  31. ^ Myanmar insurgents free political prisoners in northern Shan state city, 29 July 2024
  32. ^ MNDAA Ambushes Junta Reinforcement Convoy Heading to Lashio, Inflicts Heavy Casualties, 31 July 2024
  33. ^ အရှေ့မြောက်တိုင်းစစ်ဌာနချုပ်တပ်ဝင်းအတွင်း တိုက်ပွဲများပြင်းထန်နေ, 1 August 2024
  34. ^ "Myanmar Airstrikes on Border Hospital Near China Kill 10: Media". The China-Global South Project. Agence France-Presse. 2024-08-03. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  35. ^ Numerous vehicles captured by the MNDAA at the base of Supply & Logistics Battalion 626 in Lashio. XPCP+QF Lashio, Myanmar (Burma) – Geoconfirmed.org
  36. ^ Myanmar airstrikes on border hospital near China kill 10: media, 2 August 2024
  37. ^ "Over 100 reportedly killed in military hospital raid by MNDAA in Lashio". The Star. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
  38. ^ "MNDAA detains 100+ people, including Lashio military hospital patients". nationthailand. 2024-08-03. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
  39. ^ KawLah TV (2024-08-03). အားရတယ်. Retrieved 2024-08-04 – via YouTube.
  40. ^ MNDAA Claims Seizure of Myanmar Junta Command Headquarters, 3 August 2024
  41. ^ Myanmar’s Wa Army Moves Forces Into Lashio, 29 July 2024
  42. ^ Wa ethnic armed group deploys more fighters to northern Shan State capital, 8 August 2024