The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and allied resistance forces, have reported an undisclosed number of casualties due to military drone strikes in response to the seizure of territory and outposts in southern Kachin State by the KIA, which launched its offensive in Bhamo District on Dec. 4.
“The military has been using drones more frequently,” Naw Bu, the spokesperson for KIA, told DVB without providing any further details. He declined to disclose KIA defence strategy against military drone attacks, but assured that it would respond in the “best way possible.”
Bhamo, home to the Military Operations Command (MOC) 21, is located 120 miles (193 km) south of the Kachin State capital Myitkyina and 58 miles (93 km) southwest of Laiza, the KIA headquarters. The KIA told DVB that the regime administration collapsed in Bhamo on Saturday.
This comes after the KIA and its allies seized the Artillery Battalion 366 on Feb. 2, the Bhamo Airport on Jan. 26, an armored battalion on Jan. 25, and the neighbouring town of Mansi in southern Kachin on Jan. 8.
The regime still holds the MOC 21, Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) 47, 236 and 237, as well as engineering, medical and logistics battalions in Bhamo.
Former Burma Army Captain Zin Yaw, who defected from the military to the resistance following the 2021 military coup, stated that captured weapons from the Light Infantry Division (LID) 99 by the Arakan Army (AA) indicated that the military has a new arsenal of drones.
The regime has deployed this arsenal in its defense of Bhamo against the KIA. Zin Yaw called on resistance forces to prepare themselves for this by developing defence strategies against drone strikes.
The increasing use of drones on the battlefield by the military follows regime leader Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to the Zhongyue Aviation UAV Firefighting-Drone Company during his trip to China in November.
DVB contacted the National Unity Government (NUG) Ministry of Defence for a response to the military’s drone deployment, but has yet to receive a response.
