“It was a fierce ground battle. They fired heavy weapons [at the KIA],” said Kachin Independence Organization/Kachin Independence Army (KIO/KIA) information officer Colonel Naw Bu.

The KIA said the fighting broke out after the Tatmadaw encroached into an area ten miles from Tanai controlled by the Kachin armed group’s 14th battalion, which falls under the its second brigade.

“The fighting lasted nearly the whole day from 6:30 am to the evening,” Col. Naw Bu said.

Hostilities between the KIA and the Tatmadaw has flared since June, when an fighting forced over 1000 local residents to flee, The Myanmar Times reported at the time.

“The Tatmadaw has decided to carry out territorial clearance and launch a military offensive in the Brigade 2-area, so I believe they will continue fighting in this peak season,” Col Naw Bu said, referring to the Tatmadaw’s near-annual uptick in activity during dry season.

Following the offensive in June, local authorities asked Christian religious leaders and monasteries that were sheltering displaced villagers not to open formal IDP camps, but to move affected civilians to other villages.

The KIA’s Brigades 4 and 6 have also sporadically clashed with the military in northern Shan State in recent months. Since fighting resumed on November 17, ward and township administrators warned local residents to avoid traveling to rural areas, including nearby amber and gold mines.