Resistance forces have entered Katha on the Irrawaddy River in Sagaing Region, defying heavy artillery fire and airstrikes from the junta.
Katha Township on the border between Sagaing and Kachin State was included in Phase One of the junta-organized election.
But even as the regime was counting votes on Sunday, resistance groups launched attacks against regime bases at the town’s eastern entrance and the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 309 headquarters (LIB 309).
“Resistance groups are spread across almost the entire town now,” a ground source said. “They have completely encircled the LIB 309, leaving it with no escape route.”
Clashes are ongoing in residential wards 5 and 8.
In Ward 7, heavy artillery fire and air raids have burned and destroyed some houses and set monasteries ablaze.
The regime launched airstrikes and artillery attacks in a bid to defend the town, prompting most of residents to flee, locals said.
“As of this morning (Thursday) fighting was still happening around the town and had not yet fully reached the inner areas,” a Katha resident said. “Last night, junta aircraft dropped around 50 bombs around the town. Almost the entire population has fled—only a small number remain, mainly people who couldn’t leave. No one is left in Wards 5 and 8.”
They fled to Mohnyin, Mawlu, Meza, and the nearby forest. Some civilians are trapped along the escape routes and are being held up at security checkpoints the regime and the resistance groups have set up along the Sagaing–Kachin border, witnesses said.
Fighting in Katha involves the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), People’s Defense Forces (PDF), All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and members of the new Spring Revolution Alliance (SRA), according to sources.
A military analyst said that capturing Katha would give resistance forces a strategic advantage at the gateway to Kachin State, and that holding both Katha and Htigyaing, another strategic town on the west bank of the Irrawaddy, could significantly shift the military balance in favor of the resistance.
PDF and allied resistance forces have launched a fresh New Year offensive in the wake of the first phase of the junta-organized election, with flashpoints cropping up across the Bamar heartland.
