(Staff post from the KHIT THIT MEDIA on 20
May 2025.)
Kachin Independence Army (KIA) successfully shot
down a Myanmar Air Force Mi17 transport helicopter in their Kachin State. According
to the KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Boo, three Mi17 helicopters were on their way
to reinforce the besieged town Bamaw on the eastern bank of Irrawaddy River in
Kachin State.
KIA’s 50 cal Machine Gunners shot down two out of
three Mi17 choppers but only one crashed into the KIA Fifth Brigade area near
the town of Shwe-Gu on the west bank of Irrawaddy River. Other one crash landed
at Shwe-Gu town.
The Mi17s were sending Myanmar Army soldiers and supplies to the Bamaw-based 21st Military Operations Command (MOC-21). The crashed Mi17 was piloted by Myanmar Air Force Captain Myo Htet Aung who was killed along with a Myanmar Army Tactical Commander and all his soldiers onboard.
KIA already had a proud record of shooting down
Myanmar Air Force fighter jets and helicopters before. On May-3 2021, KIA shot
down a Russian-made Mi35 gunship in the township of Moe-mauk and killed the pilots Major Kyaw
Zeyar Htun and Captain Than Htun Lin together with the Sub-Group-Sergeant Kyaw
Zwar Aung.
On Jan-3 2024, KIA shot down a Russian-made Mi17 transport chopper in the township of Waing-Maw and killed 8 members of Myanmar Army namely Major Zaw Myo Thant (42), Captain Kaung San Thein (33), Captain Soe Paing Kyaw (31), WO-2 Win Myo Htun (42), Sergeant Soe Lwin Oo (36), Sergeant Myo Min Oo (37), Sergeant Wai Yan Oo (31), and Sergeant Swun Htet Aung (23).
On Jan-6 2024, KIA shot down a China-made FTC-200 Fighter Jet in the township of Kut-khaing in the Shan-North and killed both Myanmar Air Force pilots. At Bamaw crash site of Mi17 chopper KIA recovered the badly-burnt corpses of 16 Myanmar Army soldiers and their destroyed war weapons.
