Military tensions high in Shwegu-Sinkhan region after KIA coalition captures strategic hill outpost

Yamin Phu Pwint Aung

Following the capture of a strategic hill outpost near Zinbon and Sinkhan in upper Shwegu Township, Kachin State, by joint forces of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Kachin People’s Defense Force (KPDF), the Myanmar junta has launched a counter-offensive with four columns and is conducting airstrikes, according to ground sources.

The junta launched the counter-offensive after the KIA-KPDF coalition attacked and captured a strategic outpost near Zinbon, which controls the Shwegu-Sinkhan road, on 30 August.

“There have been airstrikes around Zinbon and Sinkhan. It is a hill where troops were temporarily stationed to control the road. It was about reclaiming that strategic hill. It wasn’t a heavily fortified base yet,” a military source said, adding that the outpost was a temporary foothold established by the junta to control the road while advancing from Shwegu toward Sinkhan, rather than a permanently constructed base.

Clashes have continued around Zinbon since the junta launched its counter-offensive the day after the coalition captured the outpost.

Zinbon is located on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River between Shwegu and Sinkhan, making it a critical point for both the road and waterway connecting Shwegu to Bhamo.

According to military sources, since the last week of August, the junta has been on the offensive toward Sinkhan from Shwegu with four ground columns: three operating on the eastern side of the Ayeyarwady River and one on the western side near Thingaw In. Each column, consisting of approximately 200 troops, has focused its offensive along the Shwegu-Sinkhan road. The KIA-KPDF coalition has engaged and resisted these columns along the Tawlan Mountain and Zinbon Mountain ranges.

A fleet of junta vessels that had been traveling up the Ayeyarwady River remains docked at Shwegu and has not yet continued its journey upstream toward Sinkhan, the military source said. “The ships have not left Shwegu yet,” he said. The fleet arrived in Shwegu on 28 August after sailing up the Ayeyarwady River.

Even before the vessels reached Shwegu, the junta had deployed ground columns along the river and the road, launching an offensive from Shwegu toward Sinkhan.

The KIA-led joint forces currently control Sinkhan and the area around the Ayeyarwady River-crossing bridge, a vital route connecting Shwegu to Bhamo. The junta is attempting to regain control of this route to replenish troops, ammunition, and food supplies to Bhamo.