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An intense battle is underway in western Myanmar as junta troops attempt to re-take Falam, the second-biggest city in Chin state, with the military dropping more than 500 bombs over the past week, residents and rebel forces said Tuesday.
Fighting in Chin has escalated in recent months, as rebels seek to push out remaining junta forces that occupied the state following the military’s February 2021 coup d’etat. The clash over Falam comes after a Chin official told RFA Burmese in late December that ethnic Chin and Rakhine rebels were in control of at least 85% of the western state.
Salai Tin Me Htut, the spokesman for the Chin National Defense Force, or CNDF, told RFA the battle for Falam was sparked by a March 11 military offensive to recapture the rebel-controlled city, and that the junta’s air force dropped more than 150 bombs in the area on Saturday alone.
Chin rebels captured Falam during their Nov. 9, 2024, offensive, taking control of the entire territory except for a base operated by the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion No. 268. The Chin PDF spokesman said the latest week-long bombing campaign was part of a bid by the junta to prevent the battalion’s capture.
Salai Tin Me Htut said that Chin forces have besieged the battalion for nearly a month and the intensified fighting since March 11 came after junta reinforcements arrived a day earlier to try to break the siege.
“They sent 40-50 soldiers, prompting the fighting to break out,” he said. “But we have managed to control [key strategic areas]. That’s why they have responded with airstrikes and fought back viciously.”
The CNDF spokesman said that in addition to the more than 150 bombs dropped by the military on the area on Saturday, he believes that the air force has dropped “more than 500 bombs” on Falam over the course of the week.
Thousands flee
Meanwhile, more than 10,000 residents of Falam have fled the fighting to nearby villages, Sagaing region’s Kalay township, the commercial capital Yangon and across the border to India’s Mizoram state, according to the displaced.
They expressed fear that junta airstrikes will “reduce the town to rubble,” as was the case in Chin’s nearby Thantlang township.
“I’m worried that my town will be destroyed,” said one resident who was displaced by the fighting. “I feel awful that they brought these troubles to the town. Now, I only hope I will be able to return to my town and live peacefully like before.”
Residents of more than 10 villages in the vicinity of Falam are also fleeing the area, while others are “building bomb shelters” and are unable to work on their farms, they said.
“The airstrikes are unpredictable — they simply drop bombs wherever they want," said another resident of Falam. “People in nearby villages are running away ... [but] the farmers ... are supposed to plant crop seeds by next month.”
On Sunday, the air force bombed Thalanzar village, some 18 kilometers (11 miles) from Falam, damaging homes and a Christian church building, residents said. Two days earlier, an airstrike on Sizar Mourl village injured a man and a woman and damaged four homes, they said.
Attempts by RFA to contact Aung Cho, the junta’s spokesperson for Chin state, about the situation in Falam went unanswered Tuesday.
Sources from anti-junta Chin People’s Defense Force, or PDF, which has fought alongside the CNDF, told RFA that the fighting since March 11 has caused casualties on both sides, although RFA was unable to independently confirm the claim.
The CNDF said that the Chin PDF has captured around 130 junta troops as prisoners of war during battles in Falam since November 2024.
According to a February statement by the Institute of Chin Affairs, which tracks conflict in the state, junta troops have killed at least 491 civilians in Chin state since the military coup four years ago.
The statement said that more than 3,000 homes and buildings have been destroyed by airstrikes and arson over the same period.
Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.