BANGKOK (AP) – Armed resistance groups fighting Myanmar’s military government seized a district capital in the north after taking state offices and a police station in a four-day offensive, according to residents, the country’s major opposition coalition and media reported.
Kawlin in Sagaing region is the first administrative capital seized by the resistance forces in continuing strife since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
Sagaing has been a stronghold of armed resistance to the army, which has responded with major offensives using ground troops supported by artillery and air strikes, burning down villages and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Loosely organised resistance groups opposed to army rule, known as the People’s Defence Force, or PDF, have sprung up around the country since the army’s takeover. They have made alliances with well-established armed ethnic minority groups such as the Kachin and Karen, who have been fighting in border areas for greater autonomy from the central government for more than half a century.
Kawlin, which is about 200 kilometres north of Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city, is the principal town of Kawlin district. Clashes began there at dawn on Friday with coordinated attacks by a combined force of at least three local resistance groups including the Kawlin PDF, according to reports posted online by media groups.
Outlets including Khit Thit Media also posted video online showing what they said were members of the resistance clearing the bodies of soldiers and police killed in battle from damaged buildings.
A resident said that the resistance fighters seized Kawlin’s police station and the township administration office and they had taken control of the whole town, which was being patrolled by a joint resistance force. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was afraid of being arrested by the military.
