Myanmar Army Hiding Their Devastating Deaths

            (Translated staff article from THE KHIT THIT MEDIA on 28 December 2023)

Despite the frequent public denials by the Myanmar Army’s spokesfool General Zaw Min Htun (aka) Zaw Mel Lone on the killed-soldiers statistics in Shan-North, one of the leaked secret-telegrams is admitting the devastating deaths of Myanmar soldiers at the battle of Kone-Jyan in late-November and early-December.

According to the leaked telegram sent to the War Office in Naypyidaw from the North-Eastern Regional Command (Ya-ma-kha) at Lashio City, just after the surrender to the MNDAA of the Kone-Jyan based LIB-125 on November-28 all Myanmar Army troops in Kone-Jyan Town in Shan-North’s Kokang region decided to withdraw from Kone-Jyan Town and retreat to Tar-Shwe-Htan Town.

The retreating troops of nearly 500 were from the Miitary Operation Command Division MOC-12 led by the CO Brigadier-General Aung Zaw Lin and the 16^th Brigade led by the CO Brigadier-General Thaw Zin Oo.

MOC-12 columns had the Divisional HQ, the Third Tactical Command, and five light infantry battalions while the 16^th Brigade columns had the Brigade HQ and one infantry battalion. And they left Kone-Jyan on December-2 and expected at Tar-shwe-htan in just a few days.

Is China Behind Ethnic Rebels’ Operation 1027?

              (Nian Peng’s guest article from THE DIPLOMAT on 05 December 2023)

Pro-China Kokang leader General Peng Daxum

No, China Is Not Intervening in Myanmar’s Civil War: Contrary to some speculation, Beijing is not supporting the ongoing rebel offensive in Shan State.

In late October, three ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance – Kokang’s Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and the Arakan Army, initiated Operation 1027 against the junta.

In the weeks since, they have successfully seized control of hundreds of security outposts and three government-controlled areas in northern Myanmar. The MNDAA, in particular, has advanced and encircled the junta-aligned town of Laukkai, situated merely five kilometers from the border with China.

This conflict reflects a perpetuation of the ethnic tensions in northern Myanmar over recent decades, specifically concerning the control of Kokang territory – a strategically significant area in the northern part of Shan State with a Mandarin-speaking population.

Fall of Nam-San: LID-101’s Total Wipeout

             (Based on Ye Lin Thu’s posts from the FACEBOOK on 18 December 2023)

Corpses of LID-101 HQ Staff.

One of the biggest outposts of Myanmar Army in the Shan-north town of Nam-San has fallen into the hands of Chinese-backed Northern Alliance rebels on December-15 after weeks-long fighting.

The rebels has basically wiped out LID-101 after killing the divisional CO and HQ staff officers by a concentrated drone attack. LID-101 based at the middle-Burma city of Pa-khoke-ku was airlifted into Nam-San just recently as the urgent reinforcement to stop the relentless tides of Northen Alliance armies.

Equipped with four 105-mm howitzers and multiple tanks LID-101 had two light infantry battalions LIB-254 and LIB-258 defending the strategic town. But the concentrated drone bombardments and heavy weapon assaults overwhelmed the defenders and rebels’ human wave attacks finally sealed the horrid fate of town defenders in the late afternoon of December-15.

Rebel Fire and China’s Ire in Myanmar

                         (The staff article from the REUTERS on 16 December 2023)

This popular film forced China to act.

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Generals from Myanmar's junta held peace talks in June near the border with China with representatives of three powerful ethnic armies. They sat across a wide table covered with blue cloth and decorated with elaborate bouquets.

But the rebels were playing a double-game. Secretly, the ethnic armies - collectively called the Three Brotherhood Alliance - had already laid the groundwork for Operation 1027, a major offensive launched in October that has become the most significant threat to the regime since it seized power in a 2021 coup.

"We were already preparing for the operation when we met them," said Kyaw Naing, a spokesman for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a largely ethnic-Chinese group that is part of the rebel coalition.

Reuters interviewed a dozen resistance officials with knowledge of the operation, as well as analysts and other people familiar with the matter. Some spoke on condition of anonymity because the offensive is ongoing.

Planning Postwar Future of Burma’s Military

              (Zachary Abuza’s article from the NIKKEI ASIA on 29 November 2023)

Time to Demolish the Myanmar Military.

Time to start planning postwar future of Myanmar's military: Rebuilding will not be possible without thorough reform of the security sector. The Burman-dominated army should be disbanded and rebuilt around regiments formed along ethno-linguistic lines.

For the first time since Myanmar's military seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, there are signs that the leadership is seriously rattled. The launch of an unprecedented coordinated offensive last month by three key ethnic armies has had a contagion effect, leading to a wave of concurrent attacks around the country by allied and affiliated ethnic resistance organizations and militias, known as people's defense forces.

Alongside the capture of more than 150 military posts, including those at two key trade hubs along the Chinese border, there are reports of growing desertions and the surrender of at least two battalions. While the regime's defeat is not a given, it is now possible to start to imagine a return to true civilian rule.

Myanmar’s Army Losing Ground Badly

       (David Rising’s AP article from the PBS NEWS HOUR on 01 December 2023)

One mass grave of Myanmar soldiers.

BANGKOK (AP) — About two weeks into a major offensive against Myanmar’s military-run government by an alliance of three well-armed militias of ethnic minorities, an army captain, fighting in a jungle area near the northeastern border with China, lamented that he’d never seen such intense action.

His commander in Myanmar’s 99th Light Infantry Division had been killed in fighting in Shan state the week before and the 35-year-old career soldier said army outposts were in disarray and being hit from all sides.

“I have never faced these kinds of battles before,” the combat veteran told The Associated Press by phone. “This fighting in Shan is unprecedented.” Eight days later the captain was dead himself, killed defending an outpost and hastily buried near where he fell, according to his family.

The coordinated offensive in the northeast has inspired resistance forces around the country to attack, and Myanmar’s military is falling back on almost every front. The army says it’s regrouping and will regain the initiative, but hope is rising among opponents that this could be a turning point in the struggle to oust the army leaders who toppled democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi almost three years ago.