The Kachin Independence Army ambushed a Burma Army (BA) military convoy transporting food rations between Sagaing Region and Kachin State.
KIA attacked the military trucks when they arrived at the base of Loi Khu mountain, between Maw Luu and Namsi Awng villages. KIA Battalion 35 (Brigade 8) maintains troops in the area.
A local who asked for his name not to be published heard a large explosion at 10:30 am, July 30, followed by gunfire. “The explosion shook our home,” he said, explaining to KNG that BA trucks carrying rations frequently pass his village. During last Friday's ambush, the man saw four vehicles.
According to the source, several BA soldiers died during a 45-minute firefight that ensued, but none on the KIA's side. “Many ambulances arrived to bring the injured soldiers” to the Mohnyin Public Hospital, and the dead soldiers to the hospital's morgue.
In the morning, BA shelled parts of Laiza, the headquarters for KIA's political wing, Kachin Independence Organisation, with artillery.
According to locals, following KIA's ambush, BA dispatched reinforcements from Sagaing Region.
According to a local source, a day earlier, in Waingmaw town, located in Kachin State, KIA Battalion 3 (Brigade 5) ambushed BA IB-58 base, instantly killing two sentries at the gate and injuring many other soldiers.
The military retaliated by indiscriminately shelling villages in the township, killing, Aung Li, 36, an employee of KEP Logistics Co Ltd, and seriously injuring another staff when a shell struck the company's lot in Laban village.
