Myanmar Forces Launch Fierce Offensive On Kachin Rebels
 Heavy artillery barrages launched by Myanmar government troops have forced Kachin Independence Army rebels in northern Shan State to pull out of their hillside bases.
More than 1,000 government troops have been involved in the rainy-season offensives since Friday. Two KIA army battalions, located between Muse and Kutakai towns close to the Sino-Myanmar border, lost their bases on Monday, reported The Irrawaddy website.
The KIA has deployed an estimated 10,000 troops, about 4,000 of whom were based in northern Shan State. The government's armed offensive against the KIA, headed by Maj Gen Aung Kyaw Zaw, has raged for five consecutive days.
The Myanmar army has shot 105mm artillery fires in bid to seize the Kachin stronghold in Loikang.
Refugees fleeing the conflict were prevented from crossing the Sino-Myanmar border by Chinese authorities, but The Irrawaddy cannot independently verify this report.
The latest armed conflict was the most intense since the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire agreement in June when fighting broke out near Chinese-built hydropower plants in Kachin State's Bhamo Township. This followed the KIA's rejection of the Myanmar government's Border Guard Force plan.
Sporadic fighting between the two sides has continued in different parts of Kachin and Shan states since.
The Myanmar government forces launched the offensive against Kachin rebels after a temporary ceasefire with the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army had been renewed a few weeks earlier. The UWSA also refused to accept the BGF plan.
The fighting has forced the hydropower plants in Bhamo Township to shut down. The Chinese have also planned to build Myitsone Dam in Kachin State and a strategic oil pipeline passing from the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan Province through central Myanmar and northern Shan State.
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