KIA’s mine trap at abandoned base kills dozens of Burmese soldiers

KIA SNIPER MAN TAKES POSITION AROUND ITS LAIZA HEADQUARTERS IN EASTERN KACHIN STATE.

This past Saturday morning dozens of Burmese soldiers were killed and a large number injured when a series of land mines were remotely denoted in an area the Burmese army recently captured near the China border, Kachin Independence Army (KIA) sources claim.

A KIA officer, who participated in the attack, told the Kachin News Group that approximately 30 large landmines were planted at the KIA’s Battalion 3 headquarters on Wuhtau Bum Mountain just before the KIA abandoned the base Friday afternoon.

The next morning, the land mines were remotely detonated just after an estimated 300 Burmese soldiers arrived at the former KIA stronghold.  Though it is unclear how many soldiers were killed by the massive explosion, a KIA officer based at the group’s Laiza headquarters told the Kachin News Group that the KIA estimates the attack killed at least 200 Burmese soldiers, while injuring perhaps as many as 100 more.

The Burmese army rarely discloses causality figures; many observers believe however that the intense fighting which has occurred between the KIA and the Burmese army during the last few weeks has resulted in the army enduring its largest losses in more than two decades.  Burmese army defectors say that wounded soldiers receive extremely poor medical treatment if they are treated at all, causing many soldiers to die from injuries that should be treatable.

The KIA’s Battalion 3 located between Myitkyina-Kambaiti Road and Dabak River has been the site of fierce fighting during the past few weeks.  The Burmese army wants to capture the area to cut the KIO’s rebel territory in two and isolate the KIA’s Laiza based headquarters from other strategic KIO strongholds.

Observers estimate that fighting in the Battalion 3 area in Waingmaw Township has forced more than 4,500 civilians to take refuge behind KIO lines.  Many of these people have fled to temporary camps located near the China border between Kambaiti and the Dabak Hka River.