Simply earlier than the federal government’s announcement, Myanmar Now reported that Myanmar Air Drive used two newly-acquired Su-30 fighter jets from Russia towards Kachin Independence Military (KIA) targets in Kachin State’s Mohnyin Township final week. The jets had been amongst six that the Myanmar army contracted to purchase in January 2018. They had been delivered this yr, regardless of the coup in February. The figter jets bombed the Indawgyi Lake area in Mohnyin twice final Thursday, at 1pm and 2pm, however didn’t hit their targets each occasions, he stated, including that the army gave the impression to be “testing” the jets.

The assaults, which had been directed at KIA Battalion 26, had been doubtless supposed as retaliation for an ambush on a army column that was marching close to the village of Taunggadone in Shwegu Township on November 22. Shwegu is on the border with Sagaing Area, so I feel the army was apprehensive about us infiltrating into Sagaing. The KIA clashed with round 100 junta troopers close to Kachinthay, a village about 16km east of the city of Shwegu, on Thursday afternoon, after the aerial bombardment in Mohnyin. Heavy artillery was utilized in that conflict. the army deployed its fighter jets towards the group’s Battalion 26 on October 6.

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Myanmar has spent $807 million on Russian arms imports over the previous decade, making Russia the nation’s No. 2 army exporter after China. Myanmar has spent $807 million on Russian arms imports over the previous decade, making Russia the nation’s No. 2 army exporter after China. Russia has equipped Myanmar with 30 MiG-29 plane, 12 Yak-130 fight coaching plane, six Su-30SME, 10 Mi-24 and Mi-35P helicopters, 8 Pechora-2M anti-aircraft missile programs, in addition to radar stations, armored autos and artillery programs. Sukhoi Su-30SME is the downgraded export model of Su-30SM developed by Russia’s Sukhoi Aviation Company (a PJSC United Plane Company).

The Kachin Independence Military is a non-state armed group and the army wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), a political group of ethnic Kachins in Northern Myanmar (previously Burma). The Kachins are a coalition of six tribes whose homeland encompasses territory in Yunnan, China, Northeast India and Kachin State in Myanmar. The Kachin Independence Military is funded by the KIO, which raises cash by regional taxes and commerce in jade, timber and gold. It’s armed with a mixture of AK-47s, locally-made rifles (akin to KA) and a few artillery. Kachin Independence Military headquarters are in Laiza, in southern Kachin State close to the Chinese language border.

In 2019, army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing personally inspected manufacturing of six of Su-30SME fighter jet being assembled for the Myanmar army on the Irkutsk Aviation Plant in Russia. (Photograph by Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing )